Arachnaphobes beware

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05E1DF133EF932A0575BC0A9619C8B63

When I saw this, I was really stunned, holy hell. For those who don't want to read the article, normally solitary spiders came together and wove a hugggeeee web. People tried to explain this, with different theories, and it just astounds me. What could have caused this many spiders to work together? It's truly insane to think just one or two came together and then more flocked to it, because they're typically anti social. Not to mention, the park workers said it's normally take much longer for even a well fed group of spiders to make it. It's truly awesome, to me.

People always try to stress we're the only ones who will work together beyond instinct or such. That ants and wolves and bees are groups because they need to do so for survival. Well, spiders are anti social, especially these kind, so it's not imbedded anywhere in their mind to work together. Spiders even eat their mates, too, so they're not exactly the best company. So I can't help but wonder, do these creatures have higher understanding of some sort? That if they worked as a community that it'd be better? I know that sounds crazy, and it makes me feel stupid for even saying it, so don't bash me about it. But wow, it's really impressive. any ideas, guys? (for those of you who might have knowledge of how spiders work more than i do x3)

 

The mere fact that you dont know any details about what exactly/how it happened takes any assumptions about spider USSR out of the picture.
But it is impressive, wouldnt want to encounter it in the dark.

 

If it weren't for the article I'd call PS.

I'd hazard the guess that this isn't team work in the sense you alluded to. I think it's just a coincidence that the webs were built so close to each other. My idea is that the webs were woven independently from one another, and that many spiders in a small place didn't have a choice but to weave close to another web. When one of them got eaten, the victor was told to care for the victim's web out of instinct, hence the good condition they're all in. I'm not pulling this out from behind either, as my cat tends to groom my hair at nights when he's done with himself. Don't ask.

edit:

:laugh:

 

I'm scared. i got really paranoid when i saw this thread, when i check this thread out suddenly a picture loading up on Kurai's post i quickly scrolled down.

 

that area must be burned, quickly and thoroughly. If they start working together, eventualy they will take the area over, so we got to stop them before they have the chance. God, i love napalm.

 

This is not so scary. I hate walking into spiderweb that i cant see, but this you can see so its cool ! However you can worry if the tree can survive, you know, it needs sunlight.

 

This is beautiful, and I've always liked spiders.

Many spiders simultaneously had a desire to make this web, by forces which have overridden their normal behavioural instincts.

Instinctive triggers:
The cause could be some kind airbourne chemical which had a temporary psychological effect on many spiders, such as a pheromone, or some other psychotropic agent, possibly natural, possibly man-made.

Particular sounds or vibrations might motivate the same flocking behaviour. They may have perceived such sound as a common threat.

The spiders may be aware of a common pest. Maybe a nasty foreign insect or nasty foreign spider which is a perceived common threat to their ecosystem, perhaps attacking and killing the native spiders one by one, or getting all of their food. The web might be interpreted as a local militia rallying against an imposing pest, because they've all realised that they can't deal with it individually.



Non-instinctive triggers:
Although that may be their normal everyday behaviour, spiders may not behave strictly anti-socially by some deep inflexible instinct. They may have some capacity to reason, and have thoughts and feelings beyond mere survival.

In that way, the spiders may have chosen to do something cooperative for a change. It may have been two or three spiders which first get together and cooperate, and as other spiders see their interaction is both benign and rare, they want to join in and help build the web with them.


I'd like my second idea to be true.

 

Thats crazy, I never seen anything like that by spiders and I've been in the wild a lot when i was younger. Hopefully no one tries to destroy it or anything.

 

I've heard of a something like this before, its really amazing.

 

Strangest thing i ever heard about spiders was a floating mass of spider webs. Basically it was a collection of webs that had been woven together, kept in the air by the wind, and was speculated to containe over 100 spiders.

cant find anything from a google search though, but it was years ago and i think it was on either Nat Geo of Discovery

 

Holy crap. When I saw the picture I thought it was just the one tree and figured it had a bee nest or something that was attracting spiders to build so close, but several acres? That's really something O_O

 

Spiders. Oh God.

I require fire. Lots of fire.

 

reminds me of this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...arauding-caterpillars-trap-car-silky-web.html

...but bigger. wow.

 

Cantwe just shoot them?

 

Well we all would need shotguns, regular rifles and pistols would be quite ineffective.

 

I knew that Blizzard shouldnt have removed firebats, marauders dont have bonus against biological targets - we are all doomed!

 

@asdf: i know, evil little silk and bad worms :X but this was done by spiders.

@kuvasz: I was thinking that, too. But the fact it got so big, and in such a quick time is strange. and you can still see from the picture that they had more room to build webs, so they weren't isolated to that spot and normally spiders don't like building webs near each other. But yeah, it could be something like that, i just didn't think it was very likely.

@jasmine: yeah but for your first example, that implies that spiders have an ability to work together, which i'm not sure they do. I don't know how smart spiders are. though, i suppose it could be instinct to flock together if something happens.

And agreed, i like your second thought better x3 it seems cooler and i definitely wanna look more into spiders from it.

 

This is amazing. Apparently it happened in 2007, anybody have any updates?

Supposedly explainable by the rainfall and abundance of food.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/09/giant-spider-we.html

Most organisms have alternative ways of survival depending on scarcity of resources/predators. I wouldn't necessarily say this is an instance of cooperation, but more like tolerance of other individuals-- no point in competing or avoiding prime locations when you don't have to.

It just goes to show that 'nature' isn't some eternal, repetitive process, but can change unexpectedly and drastically according to circumstance.

 

Ahh, thank you for the article! that's awesome :3

it's cool to see that animals have the logic of if there's enough food, they should tolerate one another and work to take advantage of the situation. it truly is a wonder of mother nature, and really cool to see

 

I thought spiders took down there webs at night. The ones that are active during the day anyway.