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(Photo: cirrusimage.com) |
Ecologist Todd Blackledge from the University of California, Berkeley, has conducted extensive research and found that many spiders often embellish their webs with shiny silk strands, known as stabilimenta (this is also the silk they typically use to secure their prey).
These silk strands can be woven in rows, in a checkerboard pattern, coiled in circles, or twisted, and their design can change daily. When hunting, spiders will position themselves in the middle of their trap, waiting for the web to tremble in a specific area before darting towards it.
Researcher Todd Blackledge experimented by rearranging pairs of webs from the American Argiope spider and removing the decorative elements from at least half of them. The result was that the more colorful webs captured 30% less prey compared to the “plain” webs.
However, the spiders residing in the colorful webs were less likely to be preyed upon by Sphecidae wasps, natural enemies of the Argiope spider. Todd Blackledge noted that Argiope spiders seem willing to trade some potential food intake for greater personal safety. According to him, other spider species also employ similar survival strategies, though the web decoration styles can vary greatly depending on the species.
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