Spider Webs

[Qwertyasdfg]

How do spiders lay new webs. It would seem to me that unless they have some amazing jumping power, how can they place webs that go across from one wall of a hallway to the other?

[vl_mungo]

As far as I know lots of spiders have a good jumping abilities, but often those ones don't build webs.
I always had the impression that they swing on a strand much like Tarzan.
On a slightly divergent tangent, some research has gone into finding out whether various drugs effect a spider's ability to build a web (suprise... they do)
http://www.bianca.com/shack/basement/web.html

[micco]

Many spiders, particulary a variety referred to as balloon spiders, are adept at floating in the breeze. Balloon spiders are able to essentially parasail from one place to another, laying web as they go so they reach a landing point with a strand attached to their launch point. That strand is used as the top anchor of a web.

There's a fluid dynamics prof at Berkeley who has devoted a lot of research into figuring out how the spiders choose an optimum time to leap. His research is into some pretty deep fundamentals of turbulence, but that's belied by all the bugs tied in wind tunnels in his lab.

[Max Torque]

There are a few methods; some that spring to mind are:

• jumping
• lifting tail, letting out a strand so the wind catches it
• attaching a strand, zooming toward the ground, climbing back up, reeling the long strand in, and walking to wherever you want to anchor the line

I've seen spiders do this last one once or twice. And once you have that initial strand, you have a "bridge" you can cross to attach the others.

[astro]

Originally posted by micco
Many spiders, particulary a variety referred to as balloon spiders, are adept at floating in the breeze. Balloon spiders are able to essentially parasail from one place to another, laying web as they go so they reach a landing point with a strand attached to their launch point. That strand is used as the top anchor of a web.

There's a fluid dynamics prof at Berkeley who has devoted a lot of research into figuring out how the spiders choose an optimum time to leap. His research is into some pretty deep fundamentals of turbulence, but that's belied by all the bugs tied in wind tunnels in his lab.

Did you really want to use this word "belied"? If so, fine but it may not mean what you think it means and it's better to find out now than in conversation with a peer.


From the Random House Dictionary

be-lie (bi lie') v.t. <-lied, -ly-ing>
1. to show to be false; contradict: His trembling hands belied his calm voice.
2. to give a false impression of; misrepresent.
3. to be false to or disappoint: to belie one's faith.

[micco]

Originally posted by astro
Did you really want to use this word "belied"?

Yep, I realized as soon as I hit submit that the vocab-police would nail me on that one. I know what it means. I used it incorrectly.