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Smithsonian Magazine ·Smart escape

This Newly Discovered Spider Builds a Unique Web That Catapults Ants Through the Air

Published 2026-06-24 14:00:00+00:00

Why would a spider spend hours building a spring-loaded catapult to catch just one kind of ant?

0:00 / 6:37 · Narrator Rasalgethi

Context

Deep in the rainforests of northern Australia, a newly discovered spider spends four hours every night building a spring-loaded trap. On 24 June 2026, Smithsonian Magazine reported on this web, which functions as a catapult designed for exactly one target: the aggressive green tree ant. The sheer physics of the trap command attention. Yet the real puzzle is evolutionary. Why spend so much energy building a complex weapon just to catch a single ant? The answer reveals a clever biological workaround for tapping into an abundant food source without angering a colony of five million.

Show notes

A report on a newly discovered Australian spider that builds a spring-loaded silk trap to catapult green tree ants into its web. Using high-speed cameras, biologists documented how the spider combines tensioned silk and suspected pheromones to capture a single aggressive prey species. The findings detail the physical mechanics of the trap, which exerts more power per gram than any other known biological catapult.

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