- Scientists have found that the sound of a spider web, plucked like a guitar string, provides the spiders with information about prey, mates, and even the web's structural condition.
- The spiders ‘tune’ the silk, controlling and adjusting its properties, the thread tensions and interconnectivities.
- Researchers have found that spider silk is tunable to a wide range of harmonics or simple pitch relationships.
- Spiders can receive these nanometer (millionth-of-a-millimetre) vibrations with organs on each of their legs. This shows that many spider silks are able to combine exceptional toughness with the ability to transfer delicate information.
- NZ’s largest spider in terms of leg span, (up to 15cm) is Nelson’s cave spider.
