Spider webs attract prey with the help of electric attraction, according to new research.
A recent study published in Scientific Reports, an online science journal, revealed that webs of the common garden spider -- made from silk thread -- are attracted to electrostatically charged objects. Honeybees and fruit flies, for example, generate an electric charge when they flap their wings, according to LiveScience.
"Video sequences of positively charged insects and water droplets falling towards a grounded orb web reveal rapid and substantial web attraction," authors Victor Manuel Ortega Jimenez and Robert Dudley wrote. "Radial and particularly spiral silk threads are quickly attracted to the electrified bodies."
In other words, electrostatically charged prey causes the web to change shape in a way that enhances the likelihood of physical contact, and hence, capture. Check out the video, above, to see the web in action.
To compare, researchers also conducted a controlled experiment using uncharged insects, and found that the web did not change shape.