News Animals

How a tiny spider uses silk to lift prey 50 times its own weight

Spinning the right lines can accomplish feats of strength when muscle isn’t enough

mall Steatoda spider hoisting a lizard

A small Steatoda spider used its own version of a pulleylike system, adding repeated silk threads to haul heavy loads, in this case, a lizard, upward bit by bit.

Emanuele Olivetti

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

Read another version of this article at Science News Explores

A family of spiders can catch prey many times their own weight by hitching silk lines to their quarry and hoisting the meaty prize up into the air.