What is it about?
Web vibration is important to many spiders as it gives them information on caught prey, potential mates and web condition. Here we use experiments and computer models to show how web tension and silk stiffness affect the ability of the web to transmit sensory information.
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Why is it important?
As both web tension and silk stiffness can be controlled by the spider, it means that spiders have mechanisms available to them to tune how the web transmits vibrations under changing conditions.
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Tuning the instrument: sonic properties in the spider's web, Journal of The Royal Society Interface, September 2016, Royal Society Publishing,
DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2016.0341.
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Resources
Spiders 'tune' their webs for good vibrations
Video about the work that features in this paper
Spiders 'Tune' Their Webs Like Guitar Strings?
Gizmodo article about the work featured in this paper
Tuning the instrument: Spider webs as vibration transmission structures?
Physics.org article on the work featured in this paper
Spiders 'tune' their webs to catch prey: Tension in the silk strings could what they will eat for dinner
Daily Mail Online article on the work featured in this paper
Spiders can 'tune' webs for good vibrations, researchers say
Reuters online article on the work featured in this paper
Spiders can 'tune' their webs to sound out plucky potential mates
Guardian article on the work featured in this paper
Spiders 'tune' webs to help catch prey and partners
Sky News article on the work featured in this paper
L’araignée “accorde” sa toile
Article in french scientific magazine 'Science et Vie' November 2016
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