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An international team of researchers have discovered a remarkable new spider species in the rainforest of north Queensland that spins an ingenious and powerful spring-actuated snare to catch a single species of ant – one ant at a time – in what they describe as “the ultimate specialisation”.
Nicknamed the ballista spider after the ancient Roman weapon that used a spring to launch a bolt or stone, the small nocturnal spider has apparently evolved a unique web mechanism to trap only the highly territorial and aggressive green tree ant Oecophylla smaragdina.
A detailed description of the spider’s predatory strategy and mechanics is published in the latest issue of the journal Current Biology. The spider – which is yet to be formally named but belongs to the genus Propostira – was first observed by Professor Greg Anderson, a biomedical research scientist who is also a spider taxonomist and photographer.
Lead researcher Professor Ajay Narendra of Macquarie University and postgraduate student Pranav Joshi then spent 10 days and nights in rainforest near Cooktown in far north Queensland locating the spiders, observing them in detail and capturing their behaviour using high-speed and infrared cameras.
