Bolas Spider

[coolingcard]

I’m a first time poster and just found this community.

So my father (Ken Yeargan) is an entomologist at the University of Kentucky, and one of the creatures he’s studied is the bolas spider, who has a really nifty way of catching prey.

Comments

[moonvoice]

We had a bird dropping / bolas spider here in our garden about two years ago and I spent aaaaages trying to figure out what it was. I loved it. It was present on a particular branch like clockwork every day. Looking exactly like bird poop. I fell in love with that little spider. Lol. When I discovered how it caught its prey, I was like 'win!!!'

[wonderwanders]

I've heard of these before. They are very cool....

There's also a spider that makes a tiny little silk "net" that, holding it with it's front legs, it stalks close to an insect and throws the net like a bird-hunter.
That's almost like a step between normal web-spiders and wolf spiders.

Here in NY we have antlion larva, which dig a tiny pit in the sand, with their jaws at the bottom. When an ant stumbles into the pit they throw up sand to knock it down to the bottom, then eat it.

[thatjamiegirl]

[cheesybread44]

awesome post! i love spiders. and yay for David Attenborough videos ;=D

[speaksoftlylove]

I love that lasso'ing sound that they made when she was hunting.