What happens when an insect touches a spider’s web? Most web-spinning spiders line their silken threads with droplets of glue, which snag blundering insects. But one group—the cribellate ...

Image of an accurate ant-mimicking spider (Myrmarachne macleayana, left) and putative ant model (Polyrhachis robsoni, right). Spiders are just as good at mimicking ants as other insects are.

Spider webs turn the airways of fields and forests into a gauntlet of traps. Once spun, these silken snares lie in wait for insects to blunder into them. But they’re not entirely passive. Victor ...

The ogre-faced spider catches flying insects in a web-like net without being able to see them – we now know it is because the spider can hear them with its legs. Close. Advertisement.