Spider which uses spring trap to capture prey discovered in Australia
Researchers say the trap flings green tree ants nearly 30 centimeters into the air with forces up to 130 times gravity.
- Researchers have discovered a new spider species in Far North Queensland that uses a powerful, spring-like conical snare to launch green tree ants into its web. Dubbed the ballista spider, the arachnid represents a uniquely specialized hunting mechanism.
- Macquarie University researcher Ajay Narendra noted the spider targets only the aggressive green tree ant, Oecophylla smaragdina, likely evolving this specialized trap to lift prey away from ant trails and avoid dangerous counterattacks from the colony.
- The spider spends up to four hours creating a conical snare with up to 60 vertical tension lines. When triggered, the trap catapults the ant at accelerations of 1367 metres per second squared, launching prey more than 30 centimetres upwards.
- Spider taxonomist Greg Anderson first observed the arachnid in 2022; researchers Ajay Narendra and Pranav Joshi studied it in early 2023. Their findings, published in Current Biology in 2026, detail how the spider uses chemical lures to trigger the snare.
- Narendra explained this mechanism is likely the only case where a web targets a single prey species, with the trigger controlled by prey rather than predator. The snare represents a highly specialized ambush strategy securing a reliable food source.
35 Articles
35 Articles
When most silk-spinning spiders hunt, they build a web and wait for prey to enter it. But a newly discovered species from Australia uses its silk to create a deadly spring-loaded cone-shaped trap that catapults its prey into the spider's main web. A foraging tree ant bites the base of the trap, then the silk threads loosen and the structure launches the ant into the air. This act of arachnid engineering has never been observed before, reports th…
This Newly Discovered Spider Builds a Unique Web That Sends Ants Catapulting Through the Air
Flung prey can reach speeds of up to 14.4 feet per second, or a little less than ten miles per hour. An insect will land in the spider's main web around one foot above the spring-loaded trap
Spider Creates Nature's Most Powerful Catapult
Australia's latest weird wonder doesn't just catch its dinner—it slingshots it. Researchers in northern Queensland say they've found a tiny, as-yet-unnamed spider that builds a spring-loaded silk trap to launch a single prey species, the aggressive green tree ant, into its web at forces far beyond what jet pilots...
Blink and you’ll miss it: This spider’s spring-loaded trap accelerates faster than a Formula One race car
Scientists discovered that the Australian “ballista spider” uses a silk cone trap to catapult prey into its web, a feat of spider engineering never before observed.
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