Scientists discovered that the Australian “ballista spider” uses a silk cone trap to catapult prey into its web, a feat of spider engineering never before observed.

Lead researcher Professor Ajay Narendra said the trap may even be chemically baited.

There’s more than one way a spider can spin its web. Some construct large vertical orb webs, while others build horizontal sheet webs or tangled cobwebs that ensnare crawling insects. There’s also ...

Spider webs present an intriguing challenge to evolutionary biologists. These finely honed death traps come in many forms, from the trampoline-like construction of the sheet web spider, to the ...

The post The 6 Categories of Nature’s Incredible Spider Webs appeared first on A-Z Animals. Every spider can spin silk; it’s one of the defining characteristics of the order Araneae, alongside ...