The Journal of Arachnology VOL. 53 · NO. 3 | 2025–2026

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The Journal of Arachnology VOL. 53 · NO. 3 | 2025–2026 The Journal of Arachnology A new issue is now available online at https://www.bioone.org/journals/the-journal-of-arachnology/volume-53/issue-3 The table of contents for this issue is listed below. Click on the links below to view the abstract for each article, or click on the link above to read the table of contents online. If you wish to update your preferences or alerts, please sign into your account at https://bioone.org If you need any further help, please visit https://bioone.org and click on "help". Growth, development, and survival in the brown widow spider, Latrodectus geometricus, under different feeding regimes Jeffrey A. Harvey, Francesco Gerosa, Rieta Gols & Wilco C.E.P. Verberk The Journal of Arachnology Dec 2025 Vol. 53, No. 3: 154-161 https://www.bioone.org/journals/the-journal-of-arachnology/volume-53/issue-3/JoA-S-24-013/Growth-development-and-survival-in-the-brown-widow-spider-Latrodectus/10.1636/Jo...

Ballistic high-powered spider webs overcome dangerous prey defenses

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Ballistic high-powered spider webs overcome dangerous prey defenses

Summary

Predator–prey interactions are a major selective force shaping kinematic performance, driving the evolution of extreme speed and power in animal movements1. Small animals such as mantis shrimps, trap-jaw ants and slingshot spiders achieve some of the fastest biological movements to capture prey by using latch-mediated spring actuation mechanisms that produce power outputs several orders of magnitude greater than muscle alone2,3,4. These known power-amplified systems are actively controlled by the predator and act on non-specific prey. Here, we report a unique spring-actuated snare in the Australian ballista spider Propostira sp. that is selectively triggered by the defensive behavior of a specific prey — the green tree ant, Oecophylla smaragdina. We argue that the prey specialization of the ballista spider has driven the evolution of exceptional snare performance.



Narendra, A., Joshi, P., Liprandi, D., Anderson, G. J., & Wolff, J. O. (2026). Ballistic high-powered spider webs overcome dangerous prey defenses. Current Biology, 36(12), R691-R692. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2026.04.066