~~~~NBCNews1

Click link below picture

.

Spiders may trap unsuspecting prey by sucking them in using electrostatic attraction, new research suggests.

The new study, published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, found that the spiderweb of the common cross spider (or garden spider) is attracted to electrically charged objects, with the sticky threads of spider silk arcing toward each other in response to a charged object.

Stroke of inspiration
Some flying insects, as they flap their wings, for instance, generate an electric charge. As such the new results suggest that charged bugs such as honeybees could be sucked into, and then trapped by, a spider’s sticky web as they fly by.

“Charged insects can produce a deformation of a spiderweb,” said study co-author Victor Ortega-Jimenez, a biologist at the University of California, Berkeley. “Any insect that is flying very close to the spiderweb can be trapped by the electrostatic effect.”

.

!!Spiderwebs1.

.Click link below for article:

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/spiderwebs-may-use-electrical-charge-capture-prey-6C10549288

.

_____________________________________________________