Slide 1
A web extends a spider's reach
A spider web can carry vibrations from trapped prey to the spider. Silk serves as both a capture structure and an information pathway.
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Different spiders build different kinds of web, and many do not use prey-catching webs at all. The familiar circular orb is one strategy within a much wider group.
Slide 2
Threads do different jobs
A web can contain stronger supporting threads and more adhesive capture threads. Their arrangement helps hold a structure and restrain prey.
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Spiders produce silk through specialized organs, and silk properties vary with function. Egg protection, safety lines and prey capture need not use identical material or construction patterns.
Slide 3
Movement sends a signal
A struggling insect disturbs the web's threads. A spider can use the resulting vibrations to guide its response toward the disturbance.
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Wind and falling debris also move silk. The animal must distinguish useful signals from other motion, so detecting vibration is only the start of interpreting what happened.
Slide 4
A signal can deceive
Some spiders enter another spider's web and mimic prey-like vibrations. The resident may approach a signal that leads to danger.
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This behaviour shows that a sensory system can be manipulated. A web carries physical movement faithfully, but the meaning inferred from that movement can still be misleading.
Slide 5
The structure needs maintenance
Damage and changing conditions can reduce a web's usefulness. Repair or rebuilding restores both the trap and its network of connected threads.
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A web is an investment made in a particular place. Its position affects the prey it intercepts and the disturbances it receives, linking construction behaviour to the surrounding habitat.
Sources
- Spider webs: not just for Halloween
Natural History Museum
- What are spider webs made of? And how?
Natural History Museum