Spiders that decorate their webs
Posted by Elsje Geringer on Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Nature's true web designers
When you look at these pictures you can draw your own conclusion as to way some spiders decorate their webs in these elobarate ways.
Author EB White noticed the web of the Banded Garden Spider when looking for inspiration for his second novel. It was from this natural inspiration that he would come up with the idea of a writing spider and would go on to write one of the world’s most cherished children’s books, Charlotte’s Web.
These peciliar web decorations is called stabilimentum. The name came about because of a mistake. When first studied the decorations were believed to be used to stabilize the web of a spider. This theory is generally dismissed these days – although it is obvious why early scientists may have thought this.
The decorations are mostly made out of silk, however some will spiders will use the remains of their egg sacs and any debris that are close by. The web decorations can be found among a number of species of spider – but the best known example comes from the Argiope genus better know as the Saint Andrew’s Cross spider. They are so called because of their habit of resting in their webs, legs outstretched in the shape of the cross of Saint Andrew.
The decorations, often at almost mathematically precise forty five degree angles seem to extend the length of the spider and, potentially, making it seem more threatening for predators. Self protection is one of the many explanations for this phenomenon. Some scientists believe that these web decorations acts almost like a stop sign – it making the spider more visible, the web itself will be seen by animals like birds that are then less likely to inadvertently damage the web, partially wrecking or even destroying the painstakingly built structure.
Some scientist states that the most obvious reason for the stabilimentum is to attract potential mates. Whatever the reason might be it is clear that spiders arenature's true web designers. It is a pretty cool idea to think that spiders have for millions of years been using something as a weapon that we only recently discovered for ourselves.
Read more:
scienceray.com
When you look at these pictures you can draw your own conclusion as to way some spiders decorate their webs in these elobarate ways.
Author EB White noticed the web of the Banded Garden Spider when looking for inspiration for his second novel. It was from this natural inspiration that he would come up with the idea of a writing spider and would go on to write one of the world’s most cherished children’s books, Charlotte’s Web.
These peciliar web decorations is called stabilimentum. The name came about because of a mistake. When first studied the decorations were believed to be used to stabilize the web of a spider. This theory is generally dismissed these days – although it is obvious why early scientists may have thought this.
The decorations are mostly made out of silk, however some will spiders will use the remains of their egg sacs and any debris that are close by. The web decorations can be found among a number of species of spider – but the best known example comes from the Argiope genus better know as the Saint Andrew’s Cross spider. They are so called because of their habit of resting in their webs, legs outstretched in the shape of the cross of Saint Andrew.
The decorations, often at almost mathematically precise forty five degree angles seem to extend the length of the spider and, potentially, making it seem more threatening for predators. Self protection is one of the many explanations for this phenomenon. Some scientists believe that these web decorations acts almost like a stop sign – it making the spider more visible, the web itself will be seen by animals like birds that are then less likely to inadvertently damage the web, partially wrecking or even destroying the painstakingly built structure.
Some scientist states that the most obvious reason for the stabilimentum is to attract potential mates. Whatever the reason might be it is clear that spiders arenature's true web designers. It is a pretty cool idea to think that spiders have for millions of years been using something as a weapon that we only recently discovered for ourselves.
Read more:
scienceray.com