The Vibration Sense

Abstract

What first comes to mind when you think about the special characteristics of spiders? Perhaps that they spin silken threads (the Old English word from which “spider” is derived means “spinner”). But anyone who has observed a spider keeping watch over its web may think of something else: that vibrations play a very important role in their behavior. The world in which spiders live is a world full of vibrations, and their vibration sense is correspondingly well developed. Take a blade of grass, use it to pluck gently on one strand in the web, and the spider will come running, expecting to find a captive meal. The many spiders that do not use webs to catch prey are equally sensitive. In later chapters (XVIII to XX) concerned with the details of prey capture and courtship, we shall see that spiders not only detect vibratory signals but also produce and transmit them as a means of communication.