How do spiders get from point A to point B as when start making their webs?

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When cleaning the BBQ last night, some industrious little spider had managed to get build a web in a gap some 2 meters wide between the BBQ and the tree and I thought how did he actually manage to bridge the gap to begin with?

Do they jump like some tiny eight-legged athlete, paying out rope as they fly through the air? Do they run down across the ground and then back up again? Do they perch on point A and fire a line across the gap line some little butt sniper and then build the rest off of that?

I am perplexed.

Edit: please forgive the illiterate title, insomnia’s kicking my ass at the moment.

In: Earth Science

5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Disclaimer: I am not a spider

Imagine I am a spider, and I have stationed myself at the tip of a branch, let out a yard or so of non-stick web strand, waited for a good tail wind, and then… launched. I might not go straight across a gap. I might veer left or right. I’d probably angle downwards. But all in all my spidey self would end up a foot or two away from my branch. Then I just take up the slack, fashion a double clove hitch, and scurry up the strand to do it again.

I mean, it’s either that or something entirely different going on.

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