Tag Archive | "spider"

This video shows a Darwin’s bark spider in Madagascar subduing a dragonfly on her web

This video shows a Darwin’s bark spider in Madagascar subduing a dragonfly on her web

Filmed in Madagascar by Matjaz Gregoric, this video shows a Darwin's bark spider subduing a dragonfly on her web. Females of this newly named (2010) species, "Caerostris darwini," cast giant webs across streams, rivers and lakes, suspending the web's orb above water and attaching it to plants on each riverbank. Bridgelines of these water-spanning webs have been measured as long as 25 meters. Studies of the silk of these spiders by Matjaz Kuntner and Ingi Agnarsson, research collaborators of the Smithsonian Institution, and University of Akron collaborator Todd Blackledge, have revealed it is among the toughest of all known spider silks. [...more]

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Drugged spiders’ web spinning may hold keys to understanding animal behavior

Drugged spiders’ web spinning may hold keys to understanding animal behavior

“Spinning under the influence” is one way to describe recent activities in the Costa Rican laboratory of Smithsonian scientist William Eberhard. An entomologist at the Smithsonian’s Tropical Research Institute, Eberhard recently carried out a series of experiments in which he observed the web-building behavior of dozens of spiders under the influence of drugs—specifically, a chemical injected into their bodies by parasitic wasps. [...more]

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Scientists from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center have found that fledgling catbirds living in the suburbs are extremely vulnerable. Almost 80 percent are killed by predators before they reach adulthood. Nearly half of the deaths are connected to domestic cats. The team studied catbird nests in 3 suburban neighborhoods in Maryland: Spring Park, Opal Daniels Park, and Bethesda. Learn more about this 2011 study by clicking here. (Catbird photo by Gerhard Hofmann)

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