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This Newly Discovered Spider Builds a Unique Web That Sends Ants Catapulting Through the Air
Key takeaways
- The spiders build spring-loaded cone-shaped webs that catapult green tree ants.
- Researchers have nicknamed the ingenious creatures “ballista spiders” after the large crossbow-like weapons used by Roman soldiers to launch heavy projectiles during sieges.
- The spiders were first observed in 2022 by study co-author Greg Anderson, a metabolism researcher formerly at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Australia.
The spiders build spring-loaded cone-shaped webs that catapult green tree ants. Ajay Narendra. A newfound type of spider in Australia builds an elaborate spring-loaded snare to catapult prey into its web.
Researchers have nicknamed the ingenious creatures “ballista spiders” after the large crossbow-like weapons used by Roman soldiers to launch heavy projectiles during sieges. The innovative arachnids, described on June 22 in the journal Current Biology, belong to the genus Propostira but have yet to receive a species name.
The spiders were first observed in 2022 by study co-author Greg Anderson, a metabolism researcher formerly at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Australia. He was in a remote rainforest in northern Queensland when he saw a green tree ant get flung into the air at top speed and become ensnared in a spider web.