New spider species catapults ants into its web at bullet speed

(NewsNation) — Scientists have discovered a spider that hunts by creating its own catapult.

The spider, found in the Australian rainforest, has a unique hunting method: a spring-loaded silk trap that launches its prey through the air — and straight into its web.

Researchers are calling the arachnid the “ballista spider,” named after the ancient Roman siege weapon, though it has yet to be formally named. It was observed for the first time in 2023 by spider taxonomist Greg Anderson, who returned to study the spider with a research team. A paper with their findings was published last month in Current Biology.

To hunt, the spider builds a cone-shaped web out of dozens of tightly woven silk strands, then waits nearby. When its snack of choice — the notoriously aggressive green tree ant — bites the trap, the strands snap loose and fling the ant upward into the spider’s main web, sometimes at speeds of over 3,000 miles per hour, which is slightly faster than a bullet.

“It’s very unusual for a spider to feed on ants, because they’re notoriously dangerous, and even more bizarre to find a spider that eats only a particular ant species,” research co-author Ajay Narendra told Science Daily.

Green tree ants are known for their painful bite and ability to spray acid, and they call in reinforcements when threatened. Narendra believes the spider may coat its trap with a chemical that specifically provokes the ant to attack the silk and trigger the snare, though that theory hasn’t been confirmed yet.

“This seems to be the only case where a spider’s web is designed to catch a single prey species, and where the mechanism is triggered by the prey rather than by the predator,” Narendra said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation.