spider

[andy.21]

what spider ambushes its prey?

[Wraith]

The trapdoor spider. Click here for more information about the trapdoor spider.

[New Forester]

Spiders have loads of different ways of catching food, and quite a few could be called ambush. Here are some methods: - Swinging a blob of sticky stuff on a thread to catch passing moths. - Stretching a small net over the prey. - Squirting a jet of sticky stuff over the prey (the male also does this to the female, to avoid being eaten). - Making a flat sheet of silk, with trip-wires to trap insects walking on it. - Making a tube of silk sticking out of the ground, hiding inside and waiting for insects to crawl over it, then dragging them inside through a slit. - Jumping onto prey, like a cat on a mouse (these include zebra spiders, the little black-and-white ones found on walls. They have four enormous eyes on the front which watch you as you move past). - Suspending sticky blobs just above the ground, so insects walking underneath get stuck and swing into the air. - Making funnels out of which they pounce. - Hiding in caves and waiting for hobbits. - Of course, making "orb-webs", the circular or wedge-shaped spiral webs strung across spaces. - Trap doors.