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by Issam AHMED WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Just when you thought spiders couldn’t get any more terrifying. A study published Monday has found that an arachnid species is capable of winding up its web to store up elastic energy, before releasing its grip and catapulting itself at furious speed toward its unsuspecting prey. The development places the triangle-weaver spider, or Hyptiotes cavatus, alongside humans as the other known species to amplify muscular energy with […]
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AFP) — Lake Vistonida in northern Greece has become an arachnophobe’s worst nightmare after it was cloaked recently by massive webs spun by hundreds of thousands of small spiders. Biologists say the recent phenomenon, though rare, is not unheard of and is caused by unseasonally warm weather prompting an increase in the local population of mosquitoes and gnats. “It’s caused by an overpopulation of spiders…there is an abundance of food available,” local […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Cloudy with a chance of… spiders? The phenomenon of “flying” spiders gliding into the air and traveling like balloons for hundreds of miles (kilometers) has a new possible explanation: the air’s natural electric charge. Aerial spider journeys — often known as “ballooning” — have long been observed, notably by biologist Charles Darwin, who documented the spectacle in his diary in the 19th century. One closely studied hypothesis suggested that spiders […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — The world’s oldest known spider has died at the ripe old age of 43 after being monitored for years during a long-term population study in Australia, researchers said Monday. The trapdoor matriarch comfortably outlived the previous record holder, a 28-year-old tarantula found in Mexico, according to a study published in the Pacific Conservation Biology Journal. The spider did not die of old age but was killed by a wasp sting, researchers […]
by Mariëtte Le Roux PARIS, France (AFP) — Whenever the “widow” spider is mentioned, people tend to sympathise with the hapless male — best known for its tendency to end up as a post-coital snack. Well, pity them no more. Widow spider males have developed a rather gruesome method of saving their own skins, scientists revealed on Wednesday. To avoid becoming the lunch of adult females, some males have taken to inseminating juveniles which have no […]
