Fancy footwork and non-stick leg coating helps spiders not stick to their own webs
Thursday, March 1, 2012 - 12:31
in Biology & Nature
Researchers asked why spiders do not stick to their own sticky webs. Repeating old, widely quoted but poorly documented studies with modern equipment and techniques, they discovered that spiders' legs are protected by a covering of branching hairs and by a non-stick chemical coating and that they modify their behavior to avoid getting stuck.