Spiders

Spiders may seem like they sit on top of the food chain in the bug world, but they’re vulnerable to an even worse fate: parasitic wasps that infect and essentially “zombify” them. And now, researchers have discovered 15 new species of these wasps.

The ability of jumping spiders to correctly judge the distance of its leaps could mean big things for imaging in small devices, with scientists at Harvard tapping into these skills to develop a new kind of ultra-compact depth-perception sensor.

A new substance is claimed to combine strength and toughness, by mixing wood fibers with spider silk.

Spider-Man's "spidey-sense" isn't purely fiction – spiders have tiny, sensitive hairs on their legs that help them avoid predators or hunt prey. And now, engineers at Purdue University have developed similar sensors for autonomous cars or drones.

A fungus is known to control the minds and bodies of ants to help itself reproduce, but it’s not the only insect to use the morbid tactic. Certain species of parasitic wasps have been found to “zombify” spiders, and now a new review paper has examined exactly how the insects pull off this feat.

It’s no secret that spider silk is one of nature’s most incredible materials. Now scientists have discovered a weird new ability. A team led by MIT has found that when exposed to a certain level of humidity, spider silk suddenly shrinks and twists, which could make it useful in artificial muscles.

​Many times, when new species are discovered, the characteristics that set them apart can only be appreciated by scientists. That isn't the case with the Ceratogyrus attonitifer tarantula, however – the thing has a long, soft horn protruding out of its back, and nobody knows why it's there.

Scorpions, rattlesnakes and funnel-web spiders have all provided scientists with promising building blocks for next-generation medicines, and a dangerous Australian arachnid has again reared its head with a compound in its venom found to be a potent killer of melanoma cells.

Strong as steel and tougher than Kevlar, spider silk is one of nature’s most impressive materials. Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis have now engineered bacteria to produce biosynthetic spider silk that they say performs as well as the real stuff.

If robots are ever going to work alongside humans in the real world, they're going to need a softer touch. Harvard researchers have developed a new method for producing small-scale squishy robots, and demonstrated it by creating a flexible robotic peacock spider, driven by a microfluidics system.

It’s long been thought that spiders were "ballooning" on silk parachutes thanks to the wind picking them up, but a new study has found that the creatures are actually making use of atmospheric electric fields instead.

Spider silk has long held the title of strongest natural biomaterial. Now, researchers at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology have developed a new biomaterial out of wood nanofibers that steals the strength record.