Society-focused spiders live and hunt together

NewScientist ^ | 23 Aug 2006 | Matt Kaplan

[Marius3188]

Spiders are not famous for their caring, sharing nature. Unlike insects such as ants, it is virtually unheard of for arachnids to live in societies that employ tactics and team work.

So the discovery in Ecuador of spiders nesting in family-based communities and hunting in packs was a surprise find for Leticia Avilés, an arachnid expert at the University of British Columbia in Canada.

According to Avilés, there are over 39,000 identified spider species. While she has seen just over 20 species cooperate, she has never encountered any species quite like Theridion nigroannulatum.

The spiders live in nests that house up to several thousand individuals which hunt by hanging threads from low lying leaves. They then hide upside down, beneath the leaves waiting for prey.

[PastorBooks]

"The spiders live in nests that house up to several thousand individuals which hunt by hanging threads from low lying leaves."

I hate spiders! And spiders that work together in the thousands...

[leadpenny]

But, Pastor, they are some of God's creatures too.

A few in the basement keep pests like ants and crickets out of the house.

[MinuteGal]

"Saddam Husseins's 'spider hole' hiding place will be sealed up to prevent the narrow dirt hole from becoming a tourist attraction or a shrine, the U. S. Army said.

The Army was guarding the hole until security at the site was turned over to the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps.

It most likely will be filled in with cement."

(CNN News Online)

A deadly human variety of spider.......

Leni

[Virginia-American]

Natural history (( ping ))

I never heard of anything like this. Convergent evolution, I presume. (Hunting in packs has evolved many times in insects, fish, and mammals, just off the top of my head)

[Judith Anne]

Eight legged freaks, that's what they are.

[Dr.Zoidberg]

Social spiders. That has GOT to be a sign of the end times.

/Shudder!

God how I loathe spiders.

[ASA Vet]

It most likely will be filled in with cement.

An excellent example of poor timing. If the hole had been filled with cement while Sodamn Insane was still in it many problems in Iraq would not have occurred.

[PatrickHenry]

Interesting. But not for a full-blown evolution thread.

Pinging "The Few"

[wolfcreek]

I don't mind a few spiders hanging around the house. (sans the Black widows and Recluses) We've found many a dead scorpion caught up in their webs.

[mcashman]

Another one of those "scientists surprised by old news" stories. According to Edward O. Wilson's "The Insect Societies", p 131, this way of life was discovered for the family Theridiidae in 1891. Perhaps the researcher needs to review the key references in her field before running out into the forest to be surprised. Perhaps the editors at "New Scientist" need to check into what the "Old Scientists" knew before running stories. :-)

[Junior]

Wasn't Arachnophobia about colonial spiders?

[VadeRetro]

I'm getting images from some dumb paperback book cover with a muscular hero and a nearly naked woman awash in hairy tarantulas. Yee-aaaAAAAAAGGGGGHHH!!!

[itsahoot]

A few in the basement keep pests like ants and crickets out of the house.

So did DDT, before we went crazy.