Why do spider colonies attack their prey in groups?

Pack hunting spiders are in places other than your dreams. While most spiders live in solitude, 20 of the 50,000 known spider species live in colonies. A kind, Analogues Eximius, Lives in very large colonies 1,000 individual spiders work together to create webs It extends up to several meters. When the prey falls into his trap, These social spiders coordinate and attack their victims. Whate allows them to take very large prey Than they hunt alone. Until now, how these spiders carry out such coordinated attacks remains a mystery.

Turns out Spiders dance to a synchronized swarm process using vibrations in their mega-web, He discovered A study. “It simply came to our notice then There is no leader among these spiders. ” Said Rafael Jensen, Analyst of Center for Animal Knowledge Research (CRCA) Of University of Toulouse Lead author of a new study of arachnids in France and society. On the contrary, The whole spider colony coordinates its attack and each person receives the same information.

When the colony attacks, the spiders land on their prey by synchronizing two stages of movement: Reach out to your struggling victim and stand still. This pSpiders allow their approach time, so they attack all at once. Using domain observations and computer simulations of this integrated attack, The Jensen He found it The attack is carried out almost completely by the vibrations in the shared network.

“When the prey falls into the trap, it stimulates the movement of the spiders,” he explained. Jensen To do WordsSideKick.com. “But After a while, they all stop for a few milliseconds before starting to move again.

By attracting spiders with dead EU attached to the end of the vibration generator, the researchers showed it. Hunting behavior, Honestly, This was triggered by a struggle for unprotected prey. However, it is It does not explain the integrated movements of the colony.

It required scientists A computer model. The models revealed it While the vibrations of the prey stimulate the initial movement, the vibrations of the spider colony itself allow the predators to coordinate their attack. As each spider felt vibrations from its prey, they began to walk. But the footprints of hundreds of spiders on the fighting insect sent vibrations through the threads of the web and echoed the sounds of trapped food.

“It’s like you’ve chatting with people in a room” Insisted Jensen. For a spider, Every step he takes makes a noise. Then To make sure they are still going in the right direction, they should stop moving.

If the fighting prey is calmed, the spiders will find it very difficult to coordinate their stop and move movements. When the researchers shook the web and then removed the lure, the colony responded by moving towards the prey, but each spider had to stop moving to “hear” signs of movement. If the prey vibrated too violently, the colony did not need to be quiet, so they were less in sync, the scientists found.

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