
Catapulting spider winds up web to launch itself at prey - dnetesn
https://phys.org/news/2019-05-catapulting-spider-web-prey.html
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beautifulfreak
Here's a video
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiP2IcE-c5A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiP2IcE-c5A)

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pelagic_sky
Thank you! Here's the same video, but starting a few seconds before the
"catapulting"
[https://youtu.be/XiP2IcE-c5A?t=60](https://youtu.be/XiP2IcE-c5A?t=60)

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amelius
"Catapulting" seems like the wrong word.

The mechanism is described as:

> When the spider releases the web, both spider and web accelerate forward
> very rapidly. The rapidly moving web tangles around the prey insect,
> starting the capture process from a distance.

But this process starts when the prey is already in the web.

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pelagic_sky
Yeah, watching the video, it doesn't seem like catapulting at all. Entangling
feels more accurate.

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fifnir
> Just when you thought spiders couldn't get any more terrifying.

Why do we have to go for the same tropes again and again ? You're writing a
science-dissemination article, is it really necessary to portray spiders as
'terrifying' ? They could have said "cool", "weird", "unique", "alien", i
don't know i'm not the one getting paid to write stuff.

But no, let's write this as if we're talking to middle-schoolers, ooooh scary
spiders !!!!!!

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dvtrn
Genuine question are you afraid of spiders? Am I correct guessing from your
response here that’s a “no”?

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hanniabu
That's irrelevant, it's an article on phys.org and is expected not to be
written like this.

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dvtrn
That's perfectly fair, should I have not asked about the commenter's own
personal relationship with arachnids, or was I otherwise wrong to infer that
they may have something to share about why people (like me) fear them? If so,
why?

