RDFRS US:
The mission of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science is to support scientific education, critical thinking and evidence-based understanding of the natural world in the quest to overcome religious fundamentalism, superstition, intolerance and suffering.
The Magic of Reality
for the iPad
Sean Faircloth:
Attack of the Theocrats!
The brilliantly-named Ogre-Faced Spider carries a net that it pushes down on to its prey to snare them.
Spiders are all adept at detecting vibrations - many attach a special string of silk to their web, then lie in wait in a safe place, waiting to feel the vibration of something on the web travelling down the string. Male spiders also attract females for mating by strumming the web in a specific manner.
Assuming that the forebears of the spider you mention were already 'set up' for vibration detection, it becomes easier to envisage a scenario whereby, in spiders living in an environment rich in quartz crystals, those crystals become involved in the prey detection process. If a spider happens to behave in a way that leads it to leave web strands around its burrow, and this causes it to detect more prey, than that tendency will be passed on and enhanced via EtNS.
Permalink Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:02:18 UTC | #639306