External power amplification drives prey capture in a spider web.

ABSTRACT: Power amplification allows animals to produce movements that exceed the physiological limits of muscle power and speed, such as the mantis shrimp's ultrafast predatory strike and the flea's jump. However, all known examples of nonhuman, muscle-driven power amplification involve anatomical structures that store energy from a single cycle of muscular contraction. Here, we describe a nonhuman example of external power amplification using a constructed device: the web of the triangle-weaver spider, Hyptiotes cavatus, which uses energy stored in the silk threads to actively tangle prey from afar. Hyptiotes stretches its web by tightening a separate anchor line over multiple cycles of limb motion, and then releases its hold on the anchor line when insects strike the web. Both spide

SUBMITTER: Han SI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6575565 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature