Spider uses small stone as counter weight to support web

I happened upon this pic from an app called ifunny (which typically shows funny pics, memes, etc.) however the pic this person posted was pretty amazing imo.

I didn't do much research to see if this is common with spiders but, the poster's description and subsequent pictures were quite impressive and I personally have never seen anything like this, so I wanted to share with ATS.

This... is one smart spider:



Link to Source

I don't know about you all, but when spiders start using tools...it makes me take a second look.

a reply to: UberL33t

That spider must have an engineering degree! That is really out of the ordinary! Thanks for sharing.

a reply to: UberL33t

I wish there were photos of the arch itself so we could see how the rock is counterbalancing better.

Ingenious spider though - that's absolutely incredible. How the heck would it know that would help?

Smarter than many humans. just WOW

a reply to: UberL33t

Well, an enjoyment of applied Newtonian principles in engineering has been added to the list of things about spiders, that make me love those freaky looking critters!

a reply to: UberL33t

Cool thread. When spiders begin to use tools I take a second look too. At everything. I don't think humans are as unique as we like to give ourselves credit for.

a reply to: UberL33t

That is odd. It is more likely that someone tossed or placed the rock in the web, and the spider rebuilt around the rock. That is a piece of limestone, but it looks far to large for the spider to have carried it from the ground, up to the roof. A smaller rock would have done the same job and been less cumbersome.

a reply to: UberL33t

Amazing. If that is true, that is amazing.

Truly amazing.

a reply to: Woodcarver

...

Looking at that web, and the huge distance between the centre of the web, and the rock itself, I highly doubt that the rock was thrown through, or into a pre-existing web. It looks, from the way the web is attached to it, as if it has been deliberately attached to the structure, for a purpose.

Another way to look at the issue is this. Observe the main body of the web as it is. You will note that the attachment points at the top, are not close enough together to produce a web whose bottom edge will be stable in a breeze. Simply put, the web would flap about in the breeze if no third, lower anchor point was there to keep it all stable. That anchor point is provided by the rock, ergo, the rock was added to the web deliberately, by the spider.

Oddly enough, in the first pic I can just make out another anchor point about a 1/4 way up from the rock attaching somewhere off camera on the left, so the spider even built a stabilizer...my guess would be the rock swayed too much in the wind.

I am also thinking that this rock was possibly on the ground at some point when the spider first built the web and wind twisted the web and rock enough that it acted like a twisting rope and actually pulled the rock off the ground and would not simply untwist like a rope because it was a sticky spider web. Once that happened it kept twisting and rose up higher, hence the need for the stabilizer web line not far up from the rock.

a reply to: UberL33t

m.youtube.com...

Here is a video. I thought it was the same web, but it appears to be different.

I'm not an arachnophobe but this messes with on some subliminal level. Imagine if all spider species start developing such tools...

First this: www.mirror.co.uk...

Then mammals... www.youtube.com...

a reply to: Woodcarver

I do not think that the spider web would have held up that stone in (almost) freefall aquiring 9.81m/s² acceleration force with every second of freefall. For me it looks like it the stone was "professionaly" attached by the spider, hence the splitted threads wrapping around the stone.

a reply to: UberL33t

Either that's one Herculean spider or the camera angle is preventing us from seeing the block & tackle it used to hoist that rock.

Impressive, but I don't think that spider lifted that rock.

Definitely looks like that spider used the stone as an anchor point. They normally let the first silk line drift on the wind until it hits something, reel in that line, then go back and forth along that silkline to make it thicker and to tighten up the tension. Then they start working on three support lines, then the radial lines and finally the actual sticky threads.

I keep Tarantula's and have owned one that liked to move small rocks around, another one like to put his leftovers/trash into a little bottlecap or water dish..never seen anything like in the OP..Wow thanks for sharing that.

a reply to: verschickter


I am still skeptical about the spider deciding to use the rock, but i'm not outright denying the possibility. There are several ways the rock could have gotten suspended in the web and tangled, wrapping itself around the rock. In the pic where you can see the spider, the web looks to have been damaged and rebuilt. (The lines are not symetrical) the spider seems too small to have been able to manipulate the rock from the ground up. Unless he repelled down, anchored the rock on the ground and then hoisted it up into place.

Either way, i'm definitely amazed and curious at this scene. I did post another video of a similarly suspended rock, giving some legitimacy to this OP's pic.

a reply to: UberL33t

"I’ve worked with spiders for years and every spider that makes these aerial webs does it the same way; they anchor some web to an object, produce an extra long strand trailing behind them as they climb up and around obstacles, and then put tension on the line once they’re back up to the top. In this case the spider was expecting the rock to be attached to the ground, but since it wasn’t, the act of tensioning the line lifted it off the ground."

This is an excerpt from iflscience.com
www.iflscience.com...

It seems the spider is likely the culprit, but likely an accidental phenomenon.

a reply to: UberL33t

See I tried to tell my son that spiders were aliens,that were from another planet.He thought I was crazy. But I know better and this just shows that not only did they travel through space to get here,they now know how to use sticks and stones on us!!!

a reply to: UberL33t

I've seen this in real life! It was like a counter balance to hold the Web firm. At first I thought it was a fluke but then when I saw that the stone was the only thing holding the web taught, I realised that it was by design. I found the inginuity quite amazing.

Clever little buggers them spiders.

All animals has a innate sense of balance.. some chose not to apply it.