"KWONG: Yes, I want to talk about orb webs. That's the spider web that looks like a wheel with concentric circles of silk on the spokes. CHANG: Yes... KWONG: Yeah... CHANG: ...I've seen these. They're so beautiful. KWONG: ...They're so pretty, yeah. And sometimes orb webs have these additional bits of silk called stabilimenta - stabilimenta - which look like a zigzag of threads or a flattened disc decoration."
"KWONG: This is Gabriele Greco. He wanted to throw another idea into the debate ring. He's a physicist and lead author of a new paper in the journal PLOS One, and he wondered if the stabilimenta actually help spiders locate their prey. CHANG: I mean, that would be ingenious. Why would they need help, though? KWONG: Well, spiders, many of them have low vision. They can't look across the"
Orb webs are wheel-shaped webs with concentric silk rings and sometimes include stabilimenta, zigzag or flattened-disc silk decorations. Stabilimenta reflect a wide range of light, prompting hypotheses that they attract prey or deter predators, though the function remains debated among silk researchers. A competing hypothesis proposes that stabilimenta help spiders locate prey by enhancing visual or optical cues near the web. Many orb-weaving species have limited vision, so reflective silk structures could improve detection of prey impacts or movement across the web and aid rapid behavioral responses.
Read at www.npr.org
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