Instead of waiting for prey to stumble into its web, it uses a spring-loaded trap to launch ants into it. The spider was found in the remote rainforests of Far North Queensland, and its nickname comes ...

The ballista spider builds sophisticated spring-loaded snares to catapult its prey. Newly discovered, the ballista spider ...

Flung prey can reach speeds of up to 14.4 feet per second, or a little less than ten miles per hour. An insect will land in the spider's main web about a foot above the spring-loaded trap ...

Researchers say their hunting method - which allows them to prey on dangerous ants - is unprecedented.

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.

The Australian ballista spider builds a spring-loaded snare that is set off by ants of one species only. The power is in the ...

A tiny Australian spider has been found using a silk-powered catapult trap to fling aggressive green tree ants into its web.

Predator-prey interactions have created some of the coolest strategies in the animal world. From mesmerizing cuttlefish, to head-popping mosquitoes, the world’s animals have come up with some pretty ...

The long-standing mystery around why spider webs sometimes feature "extra touches" known as stabilimenta has been revisited in a new study which suggests that their wave-propagation effects could help ...

A tethered mosquito approaches the web in the path of release of the cone, and triggers web release response. Credit: S.I. Han and T.A. Blackledge, 2024. Ray spiders deploy an unusual strategy to ...

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 ...

Most spiders are solitary, aggressive, and quick to cannibalize their own kind. One species from Madagascar breaks every rule ...