Comments on: Spider web construction

Spider web construction

Mitheral — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 11:10:09 -0800

Spider web construction gallery is a collection of diagrams of the path a spider takes when constructing it's web. The diagrams are colour coded by construction phase. [VIA MoFi's very first post.]

By: imaswinger

imaswinger — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 11:20:13 -0800

spiders on drugs

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 11:27:59 -0800

Good find, Mitheral.

By: fluffycreature

fluffycreature — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 11:38:29 -0800

Oh my, this is good fun to explore. Thanks!

By: jamjam

jamjam — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 11:43:18 -0800

Excellent! I hope he keeps going. I'd really like to see a lot more.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 11:46:22 -0800

Wicked cool!

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 11:57:31 -0800

Ok, this is so fucking rad! The pictures are totally cool and the text makes me wish that I had time to appreciate all things in nature at this depth (although that might get boring, I suppose). The web Z. diodia is very finely meshed, more circular than other webs and features a particularly large hub. I had one observation (out of 33) where the lower radius was used as the exit radius for frame construction. This species is very special in the way it constructs the radii. Unlike most other araneid spiders, it incorporates a part of the provisional radius (= exit line) into the definitive radius, thus producing a definitive radius which is doubled on the outer part (where the tension in the radius is larger) and single on the inner part.

By: sklero

sklero — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 12:07:29 -0800

I love this.

By: Flashman

Flashman — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 12:18:44 -0800

It's a great resource for tattoo artists as well.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 12:29:49 -0800

Good stuff, thanks.

By: Kickstart70

Kickstart70 — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 12:57:17 -0800

Speaking of spiders, one of these came into our house last night and scared the hell out of my wife. Biggest spider I've ever seen in the Vancouver area (of course, doesn't compare to those in the rest of the world).

By: alms

alms — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 13:15:26 -0800

I'd like to see a film of a person doing this between two towers with lots of climbing rope.

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 14:00:17 -0800

Very nifty. I've always wondered if they dig the engineering behind it (they'd be one up on me) or it's instinct or whathefu. I mean how many lousy designs must spiders have gone through to get this hard-wired? And where do refinements come in? That drug thing is funky too. (I do try not to kill spiders, since they eat the other bugs. I haven't fed one LSD yet)

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 14:28:01 -0800

OmieWise writes "the text makes me wish that I had time to appreciate all things in nature at this depth" Ya, I'll never be able to pass by a spider web again without thinking about this. The Fecenia singaporiensis construction is especially insteresting. Smedleyman writes "That drug thing is funky too.(I do try not to kill spiders, since they eat the other bugs. I haven't fed one LSD yet)" That's got to be a hoax, the quotes on the mental state page confirm.

By: dov3

dov3 — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 14:52:58 -0800

What is an stabilimentum? It sounds like it stabilizes the web, but why and how, and why some webs have them and others do not?

By: Kickstart70

Kickstart70 — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 14:58:47 -0800

stabilimentum

By: F Mackenzie

F Mackenzie — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 15:02:58 -0800

I don't think the function of stabilimentum has been completely nailed down, although there are lots of theories. I've watched a few argiope spiders around my house build and rebuild their webs with stabilimentum in different places... wonderfully interesting to watch.

By: gummo

gummo — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 15:55:30 -0800

Oh man. Where's the time lapse? I was sure somebody would have added one in a comment. I couldn't find one, but this was cool anyway. http://www.haworth-village.org.uk/nature/how/spider-web.asp

By: unknowncommand

unknowncommand — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 15:56:30 -0800

This is so great.

By: melixxa600

melixxa600 — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 16:46:21 -0800

Mitheral, I saw similar info about spiders on drugs in an old issue of Spiegel (oh, OK, it was about 10 years back). Different photos of spider webs, similar information (spiders on cocaine: overly ambitious; spiders on grass: underly ambitious; etc.) But not jokey. No joke.

By: cenoxo

cenoxo — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 18:41:55 -0800

Meh — any old garden-variety arachnid can spin a web and wait for something to fly into it. Real spiders lasso, spit, and throw nets over their prey.

By: LordSludge

LordSludge — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 19:27:55 -0800

Wait for it... . . . Best of the web. AHAHAHAHahahahahaha!!!.... heh.. :sniff: But seriously... spiders are so damn cool. I just wish they didn't creep me out so.

By: Enron Hubbard

Enron Hubbard — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 06:16:22 -0800

I used to have a very live-let live attitude toward spiders until I was bitten by a brown recluse. Now, not so much. Still, the webs are fascinating. because the more toxic the chemical, the more deformed was the web. (Looks at caffeine inspired creation) Holy crap, don't tell the DEA or they'll be doing no-knock invasions at Starbuck's.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 08:17:09 -0800

LordSludge writes "web." You wouldn't believe how many hits you get when searching for dupes for a post about spider webs.

By: dhruva

dhruva — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 10:21:14 -0800

You wouldn't believe how many hits you get when searching for dupes for a post about spider webs. heh.