Well, this is pretty cool. BBC has an article about some of the earliest spiders -- or at least web spinners -- ever discovered.
BBC reports that, "The evolutionary success of this design can be seen in the high diversity of true orb weavers, which currently number 2,847 living species.
This astonishing diversity also owes much to the way in which the basic design can be easily modified.
'One modification to the web is quite fantastic,' Dr Penney told the BBC News website.
'Picture a normal, spiral orb web and picture running down from it a ladder-type structure which is also made from sticky silk. This has evolved to trap moths, which have scales that rub off.
'When a moth flies into a normal orb web, it's the scales that stick and the moth tumbles out of it. But with the ladder structure, the moth tumbles down until all the scales come off and eventually it gets caught.'"
Spider Woman is an important Goddess to Native Americans.
2 comments:
I was talking on the phone last night, watching idly as a spider was spinning a thread down from the ceiling towards Henrietta the Hound's doggy bed on the floor. Henrietta was watching idly, too.
Then she got up walked to the spider and swallowed it.
I'm not sure what the point of this comment is...
as a child, i'd catch grasshoppers, ants. etc. and toss them into the web of the fat orange orb weaver next to the door.
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