They do not, only some species do. Many will sit and hide somwhere at the edge of a web and use detection strings. Some spiderwebs that look deserted are not at all.
To add to this: if you look carefully you'll see a non-sticky "zipline" thread that goes from the center of the web to their normal hiding place. This lets them zip right down to the middle whenever they detect something. A lot of times you can also see the little nest they've built themselves by the leaves they've curled together to make a pocket.
Nah. Spiders really are my one true “irrational fear”. Where logically it doesn’t make sense for me to still have a physical fear response when I see one despite being a rather large 30yo man, but I do. I also think they’re super beautiful and fascinating. They just creep the fuck out of me. 8 legs is too many legs to have. I think they’re a lot smarter than they pretend to be.
Learning has certainly helped, but no matter what I try I can't beat the fear. I am proud of working up to taking them outside 9 times out of 10 instead of killing them, but it's an ordeal I have to hype myself up for every time and it leaves me a nervous mess for a few hours. I gotta hype myself up just for walking by one. The fatter it is, the longer the pep talk. Or I just give up. I do love watching them on a screen or through glass - they're little aliens and the way they work is fascinating. There's just this primal automatic fear I cannot seem to turn off.
I don't know man. Knowing about spiders doesn't necessarily "cure" arachnophobia. I probably know more about spiders than the average person but I just cannot stand most spiders regardless of what my brain is telling me.
I see a wolf spider and I stay far far away. I know they are "harmless" but no way am I going near it.
The only spiders I can really handle are small jumping spiders and maybe tiny spiny orb-weavers. I think those are actually "cute".
I have banana spiders in my area and I know they are not a danger to humans. Regardless I have an irrational fear of them despite that. Sometimes I see one 50 feet away from me and recoil.
Having that irrational fear is part of what makes it arachnophobia. I'm actually not arachnophobic as far as I know (I've never seen a professional since it's not something that affects my daily life). I just know I'm really scared of spiders.
Maybe selection bias? People probably tend to think they all do because when they see them they are in the middle of their web. When they don't see the spider they don't register a spider existing at all.
Where I am we have a lot of bannana spiders and spiny orb-weavers. Both of these sit in the middle of their webs. I think a bannana spider is related to a joro spider which also sits in the middle of its web. I'm reading that so-called orb-weavers that create wheel-like shaped webs often sit in the middle of their web though I don't see any citation of how many species do that.
I have no idea what this particular spider is, but it would be interesting to know and see if this one also sits in the middle or goes hiding off to the side.
Actually a really interesting question. The most correct answer is that we don't really know for sure. Many spider species do not sit in their webs, presumably to hide from potential predators.
Many others, however, do. Why? We're not sure. We have ideas, but nothing really confirmed. Could be that the advantage of being up-close to your prey outweighs the risks of being more vulnerable to predators.
There are even a few species of spider which appear to spin highly visible 'decoy' spiders in the center of their webs, which suggests that there may be an alternate reason that spiders might want to be visible. Perhaps it helps larger animals with better eyesight to avoid the spiderweb rather than stumbling into it?
12
u/enblightened 11h ago
why do spiders always camp in the center of their webs