Synthetic spider silk laced with graphene can heal itself when wet
24 April 2023
A material made from a protein in the silk of spiders can rapidly seal any breaks and would work in wearable electronics to monitor your health
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Premium
Three species of extremely primitive spider discovered in China
6 April 2023
Mesothelean spiders diverged from all other spiders long before the first dinosaurs – three species of these living fossils have just been identified in western Hunan province
Brown widow spiders are killing off black widows in the southern US
13 March 2023
Black widow spiders are waning in the southern US and brown widows may be the culprit – in lab tests, they were more than six times as likely to kill southern black widows than other arachnids they were offered
Black widow spiders remember their prey if it is stolen
12 October 2022
When researchers take away a black widow’s prey, the spider can remember how large the prey was and where it was in the web, and it will search harder for larger missing grubs
Metal-enriched silkworm silk is one of the strongest materials ever
6 October 2022
Standard silkworm silk has been made stronger than spider’s silk, one of the toughest materials known, by bathing it with metals and respinning it
Ant-slayer spider catches prey with acrobatic leap to wrap it in silk
19 September 2022
High-speed cameras have revealed the extraordinary hunting technique of the Australian ant-slayer spider, which is highly successful and thought to be unique
Watch male orb-weaving spiders catapult off females to escape death
25 April 2022
For the first time, spiders have been observed escaping sexual cannibalism by flinging themselves away from females, reaching speeds of up to 88.2 centimetres per second
Spider avoids being eaten after sex by launching itself away at 88cm/s
25 April 2022
Male orb-weaving spiders take a life-saving approach when it comes to reproduction
Social spiders synchronise to catch prey hundreds of times their size
7 March 2022
Some spider species that live in groups of thousands on enormous webs synchronise their movements to catch insects up to 700 times heavier than an individual spider
Spider webs may act as most sensitive ‘ears’ in known natural world
11 February 2022
The bridge spider (Larinioides sclopetarius) uses its web to detect the sounds made by insects flying nearby and prepare itself for a potential meal
