I wonder why biological organisms are capable of such absurdly high accelerations. Article reminded me of cnidocytes which apparently produce anywhere between 40,000 and 5,410,000 g. Is it because of the small masses involved?
It is truly fascinating, I wonder how it evolved like that.
Before becoming a spring as it is today how was it hunting in the past? What constraints made it need such a mechanism instead of a typical web?
This sort of thing makes me think that if I were engineering a biome, this sort of specialized spider would be exactly how I would solve the problem of a species that I accidentally made too prolific. The spider is a targeted fix: only preys on the ants, and if the ant problem ever resolves itself, the spider goes away.
I think this is a case where the theory of evolution feels pretty handy-wavy and doesn't answer the mechanism of how this happens. The article even talks about "bioengineered" silk! There are certainly lots of cases of evolution, so it is clear that things do evolve, but the problems of a theory are revealed in the edge cases, and I think this spider suggests that the theory really needs a lot of work to be a robust theory. I don't think a simple gradient descent (evolving toward more fitness) has explanatory power in this case. A theory that hand-waved around edge cases like this would never fly in Physics; at best it would be considered a holding theory until a better one could be found, like dark matter.
(Plus, I think it's fun to think about bioengineering in a sci-fi, or even Babylon 5 way)
It is the year 2038. A new brand of slingshot is almost immediately removed from store shelves after multiple children receive through-and-through wounds.
The part from the paper which is so interesting is why the ant bites the trap in the first place. The paper suggests that the spider puts out a pheromone that attracts the ant and triggers the ant to aggressively bite the snare, but the pheromone only does this for the spider's target species, the green tree ant. The researchers watched three other ant species check out the snare, go "meh", and move on, unharmed, without showing any aggression towards the snare.
Ultimately, it's probably due to the rate of encounter with this species and the evolution of the pheromone towards the most consistent and intense response from that particular species. It's likely that a more general pheromone wouldn't induce such a consistent response, since it would be a less specific and reliable cue from the ant's perspective. So if you encounter lots of different ant species, a more general pheromone with a 50% response rate could work, but if you primarily encounter this ant species, a more specific pheromone with a 90% response rate is going to confer a greater fitness advantage.
Could be due to the rate of encounter with this species vs. other species, could also be due to the consistency of response with more general vs. specific pheromones. You start with spiders with silk/pheromones that ants are a little more aggressive towards, then variance in that chemical makeup leads to fitness advantages. If the pheromone confers a strong advantage in a specific ant,
> but the pheromone only does this for the spider's target species
Isn't this concluded through observational studies? Is it possible that its just not universally true, like it still impacts, idk, 0.01% of this ant's species due to gene diversity?
Heh, for a second there this read like some of the Portiid adventures with Bianca and Fabian from Adrian Tchaikovsky's book "Children of time". If you find this kind of thing interesting and are a fan of sci-fi, I highly recommend the book.
I'm from where these spiders were found. The ants they're predating are an equally fascinating and super aggressive species of green weaver ants (that have other cool predators like "mimic" jumping spiders).
Some spiders seem to think, recognize people and take immediate evasive action. Contrast that with a beetle, or ant. They just keep walking along like I'm not even there.
I turned the kitchen light on once and saw a spider in the middle of the floor. It ran straight under the fridge. It would peek out occasionally to see if I was still there.
Spiders are insectivores and have little to no interest in you. That's why I love them. When you have spiders, you don't have pesty insects, in the same way that when you have cats you don't have rodents.
21 comments
[ 1.3 ms ] story [ 43.9 ms ] threadI think this is a case where the theory of evolution feels pretty handy-wavy and doesn't answer the mechanism of how this happens. The article even talks about "bioengineered" silk! There are certainly lots of cases of evolution, so it is clear that things do evolve, but the problems of a theory are revealed in the edge cases, and I think this spider suggests that the theory really needs a lot of work to be a robust theory. I don't think a simple gradient descent (evolving toward more fitness) has explanatory power in this case. A theory that hand-waved around edge cases like this would never fly in Physics; at best it would be considered a holding theory until a better one could be found, like dark matter.
(Plus, I think it's fun to think about bioengineering in a sci-fi, or even Babylon 5 way)
Could be due to the rate of encounter with this species vs. other species, could also be due to the consistency of response with more general vs. specific pheromones. You start with spiders with silk/pheromones that ants are a little more aggressive towards, then variance in that chemical makeup leads to fitness advantages. If the pheromone confers a strong advantage in a specific ant,
Isn't this concluded through observational studies? Is it possible that its just not universally true, like it still impacts, idk, 0.01% of this ant's species due to gene diversity?
>discovered a remarkable new spider species...
Recently evolved then?
Or perhaps...
"An international team of researchers has recently discovered a remarkable spider species..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weaver_ant
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/wildfires...
I turned the kitchen light on once and saw a spider in the middle of the floor. It ran straight under the fridge. It would peek out occasionally to see if I was still there.
That's why spiders scare me.