Diaz Candido, Long John H
Biology Department, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604, USA.
Insects. 2022 Dec 16;13(12):1166. doi: 10.3390/insects13121166.
Spiders use various combinations of silks, adhesives, and behaviors to ensnare and trap prey. A common but difficult to catch prey in most spider habitats are moths. They easily escape typical orb-webs because their bodies are covered in sacrificial scales that flake off when in contact with the web's adhesives. This defense is defeated by spiders of the sub-family of Cyrtarachninae, moth-catching specialists who combine changes in orb-web structure, predatory behavior, and chemistry of the aggregate glue placed in those webs. The most extreme changes in web structure are shown by bolas spiders, who create a solitary capture strand containing only one or two glue droplets at the end of a single thread. They prey on male moths by releasing pheromones to draw them within range of their bolas, which they flick to ensnare the moth. We used a high-speed video camera to capture the behavior of the bolas spider We calculated the kinematics of spiders and moths in the wild to model the physical and mechanical properties of the bolas during prey capture, the behavior of the moth, and how these factors lead to successful prey capture. We created a numerical model to explain the mechanical behavior of the bolas silk during prey capture. Our kinematic analysis shows that the material properties of the aggregate glue bolas of are distinct from that of the other previously analyzed moth-specialist, . The spring-like behavior of the bolas suggests it spins a thicker liquid.
蜘蛛利用丝线、粘性物质和行为的各种组合来诱捕猎物。在大多数蜘蛛栖息地，一种常见但难以捕捉的猎物是飞蛾。它们很容易从典型的圆网中逃脱，因为它们的身体覆盖着牺牲性鳞片，当与蛛网的粘性物质接触时，这些鳞片会脱落。圆蛛亚科的蜘蛛克服了这种防御机制，它们是捕捉飞蛾的专家，结合了圆网结构的变化、捕食行为以及置于这些蛛网中的聚合胶水的化学成分。圆网结构最极端的变化体现在流星锤蜘蛛身上，它们编织出一条单独的捕捉丝，在单根丝线的末端只含有一两个胶滴。它们通过释放信息素来吸引雄性飞蛾进入流星锤的攻击范围，然后挥动流星锤来诱捕飞蛾。我们使用高速摄像机捕捉流星锤蜘蛛的行为。我们计算了野外蜘蛛和飞蛾的运动学，以模拟猎物捕捉过程中流星锤的物理和机械特性、飞蛾的行为，以及这些因素如何导致成功的猎物捕捉。我们创建了一个数值模型来解释猎物捕捉过程中流星锤丝线的力学行为。我们的运动学分析表明，[某种蜘蛛名称]聚合胶水流星锤的材料特性与之前分析过的另一种捕捉飞蛾的专家[另一种蜘蛛名称]不同。[某种蜘蛛名称]流星锤类似弹簧的行为表明它纺出的是一种更浓稠的液体。
