When I was a child, I felt that the 7 spider spirits who tossed Tang Monk Zhu Bajie on TV were the most correct appearance of all the female leprechauns in the world; entered adolescence, but was attracted away by the playful Bai Jingjing in Journey to the West, and was not very interested in the heroine "Pansi Daxian" and Spider Lady Spring XIII.
In the myths we Chinese, spiders rarely appear in a positive image, which does not prevent everyone's polarization of their love and hate - you see, although parents who love cleanliness always talk about "how to sweep the world without sweeping a house", many of them deliberately do not disturb the little spiders with webs in their homes.
Whether you like it or hate it, it must make sense that spiders can be "refined" and even deified in cultures around the world.
Pan silk Daxian spinning thread
Pansi Mountain hides Pansi Cave, and Pansi Cave sits Pansi Immortal. Coiled silk Daxian spinning thread, and bundled to cook a family banquet.
All spiders have silk. But some species do not use silk webs to catch prey: for example, jumping spiders, trapdoor spiders will swoop in from the hide; Tarantulas will chase their prey.
Some aquatic spiders are more "lazy", they treat the surface of the water in nature as their own web, which may be good physics - when the surface tension of the water traps the flying insects, the spider detects the vibration of the water surface and runs out to pick up ready-made.
There are also more interesting combinations: the web-casting spider balances ambushes and knotted webs - it weaves a small web, holds it on its front legs, and pounces on the web; Meteor hammer spiders will apply moth pheromones to the hammer as bait.
Ever watched the 18-forbidden American drama Spartan Gladiator? All the tricks of the human gladiator: casting a net, meteor hammer, tripping ropes, running, jumping, flipping heels, spiders have mastered it all.
The reason for the variety is simple: while the net is strong, its energy efficiency is not perfect. The net is made of silk, what about silk? The protein squeezed out of the spinneret, the building of the net itself, has a large amount of protein consumption, which is offset by the energy savings of not having to hunt prey.
The savvy web-knotting spiders usually eat a portion of their web every day to regain energy.
The shape of the net is closely related to habitat vegetation and energy saving
At least 100 million years ago, many spiders began forming webs to trap insects for food – as witnessed in amber in the early Cretaceous.
Over the course of their long evolution, spiders have "learned" various web structures. Take the figure as an example, from A to G, they are funnel nets, sheet nets, ordinary nets, streamlined ball nets, vertical ball nets, tangled nets, and horizontal ball nets.
In 2016, scientists attempted to quantify vegetation structure in some areas and estimate habitat suitability for spiders with webbrows. It turned out that the vast majority of spider web types had a cliff-like population decline in areas with large herbivores (e.g., deer): herbivores reduced the complexity of vegetation and therefore the availability of anchor locations for spider webs.
There is one exception, funnel builders, who largely ignore the interference of herbivores.
Note that funnelweb spiders are not a taxonomy, they refer to many different species of spiders that span multiple families and independently evolved the ability to form webs into funnels.
On the mainland, the representative species is the labyrinthica spider, which is basically found throughout the country.
Panshi hole
Funnel spiders will first build a web of flat surfaces, connect to form a maze, and finally form a deep funnel-shaped cave.
This cave is where they retreat, cool and comfortable. Although usually built between low-lying meadows and vegetation, most are located about 60 cm above the ground. But some species will also go higher, such as trees, up to about 1.5 meters above the ground.
Funnel web spiders spend most of their time in their silky tubular burrows. When potential prey, including insects, lizards, and even frogs, cross the tripwire, they rush out and inject venom to subdue the prey.
Some large labyrinths are quite complex, with funnel spiders traversing their flaky webs and burrows, able to locate themselves at any time and navigate in complete darkness. Scientists have found that in addition to vision, funnel spiders have special lines to assist them in understanding their location - you can think of the entire coiled wire hole as an extension of the funnel spider's body.
In the lab, after the researchers removed the threads, the spiders got lost in their own homes.
In this veritable pansilk hole, domestic labyrinth funnel spiders live for about two years, while Australian funnel spiders live for 20 years. The probability of becoming refined skyrockets.
Write at the end
Domestic funnel spiders are not very toxic, but Sydney funnel spiders are boundless.
For unknown reasons, they specialized their attacks on primates — the venom contains a compound called Delta-Atracotoxin, an ion channel inhibitor that is highly toxic to humans and other primates.
However, it has little effect on the nervous system of other mammals other than primates. There are no monkeys in Australia, did these guys evolve specifically to be abusive?
Author thanks for your attention (- _-)