Put yourself in danger from food

2008/01/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Zoologia

Spiders of the genus Argiope are special. They add some ornaments with thread to the basic structure, obtaining a very striking result. But drawing attention to nature is not a very general strategy, so biologists wanted to know why Argiope ornaments. Taiwan biologists put a camera next to a network and have recorded for 700 hours. Apparently, biologists claim that having a striking network has advantages and drawbacks. The advantage is that decorated nets attract more insects than undecorated ones, with the drawback that the decoration is also more attractive for predators who eat the same spider. Finally, the spider is endangered in exchange for getting a lot of food.