Australian Geographic Shares the Fascinating Importance of Spiderwebs
If you've ever walked through a spiderweb, you know how annoying it can be. Spiderwebs also mean that there are spiders lurking around, and many people are not fans of the eight-legged creatures. Australian Geographic shared a cool video on Friday, March 1st that explains why spiderwebs play an important part in understanding the ecosystem that lives around the webs, and it was fascinating to learn about!
Australian Geographic spoke with PhD candidate and author Dr. Leonardo Newton, who explains what eDNA (environmental DNA) is and why it's so important to researchers. Once you hear him explain it, you'll understand what an important role these webs play in our environments.
Pretty cool facts from Australian Geographic! I thought it was so interesting to learn just how much that spiderwebs can tell us about the areas around them. Like what kinds of species are thriving or missing from an area, invasive species that might be taking over, rare species that they don't normally see there...basically everything that makes up the ecosystem around them!
Related: Giant 8-Inch Spiders From China Are Reportedly Invading the U.S.
More Interesting Spiderweb Facts
I realized that there was probably more to spiderwebs than I ever considered, and I found an interesting article from JSTOR Daily, a non-profit library for the 'intellectually curious' that shared more cool facts about them. Like the fact that not all spiderwebs are spun to catch bugs...some spiders decorate theirs. "Some spiders, particularly the large family known as orb weavers, actively decorate their webs with extra silk designs". Some spiderweb designs actually attract insects towards them - maybe it's the way that the light hits and reflects off of them? They are also sneaky and will camouflage webs to make them look unused - they might leave old egg sacs hanging around.
Another interesting issue is that spiders often create small webs on purpose, even though they don't catch as many insects. The reason for this is that some spiders will rebuild their web every single day. Since it takes so much energy to do it, respinning a smaller web just makes more sense.
And no matter the size, those webs are strong...stronger by weight than steel! In fact, scientists have likened the strength to Kevlar, and they've suggested, "if you made a spider silk rope the width of a pen or pencil, it could lasso and stop a flying jumbo jet airliner." That being said, weather, humidity, heat, and other conditions can affect the web's strength.
There are many different types of webs and each has a different name. Tangle webs and cobwebs, funnel webs, tubular webs, orb webs, and sheet webs are the main types, and each kind of web has a different purpose.
Who knew that there was so much to know about spiderwebs? The next time I walk in to one, I'll definitely think about the tiny master engineer that created it!
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