Is that kind of information passed down genetically and if so, how does that work exactly? It seems easier to explain instinctive behaviors in other animals but weaving a perfectly geometric web seems so advanced it’s hard to fathom how that level of knowledge can simply be inherited genetically. Is there something science is missing?
In: 1829
It’s one of those situations where complexity comes from simplicity. The spider does inherit the urge to make webs, but the “information” it instinctively inherits is surprisingly simple. Imagine it like it doesn’t know to spin a complex web, but rather it knows instinctively “Strand, turn, strand, turn, strand, turn”, while also knowing not to get stuck on its own web (these are not the actual instructions it’s following, merely an example.) And the combination of simple rules inherited over time leads to a more complex final web.
Think of it like one of those simple robot vacuum cleaners. it’s not intelligent, it only knows simple instructions like “go forward until you hit a wall, turn if you hit a wall.” With those two simple instructions, it will run what appears to be a complex course around a room, and could even solve a maze, but it’s not the result of the vacuum cleaner actively trying to solve a maze, but just the result of simple rules.
Millions of years of evolution, every now and again a spider has a new instruction, and most will probably be detrimental to building a web, but those that survive keep going until eventually they have a simple set of rules inherited to follow that results in the webs we see today.
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