This video has been making the geek rounds, and it has definitely put Santo Antônio da Platina, Brazil, on my Must Visit list.
It’s home to a colony of spiders called Anelosimus eximius, which have an unusual feeding behavior. After hanging out in trees all day, they come out in the evening to spin a web. Each web is joined to the next one, resulting in a virtual sheet of webbing dotted with spiders. They combine their efforts to catch flying insects.
I have never heard of cooperative group feeding in spiders before — at least, not spiders that weren’t family units. This is beyond cool. But it’s really not for the arachnophobes.
(Note: the title of the video means “Raining Spiders.” It shows nicely in full screen, if you dare.)
Via The Loop, where the first comment cracked me up:
[-does a google search for distance between his house and Santo Antônio da Platina-]
Answer: 4,720 miles
[-breathes sigh of relief-]
[does a Google search for distance between my house and Santo Antônio da Platina]
Answer: 6,649 miles, give or take
[breathes sigh of relief, declines to watch the video]
Thanks for the warning!
Knowing your love of all kinds of arachnids, I was wondering why you hadn’t posted something about that video, yet… wasn’t the web worldwide enough to reach Portugal?
…Imagine ‘equipping’ them with tiny lights (or fluorescent patches) on their back and belly. What a Christmas lighting that would be!
Not for the arachnophobes, not for the arachnophobes…
The Must Visit list for real arachnophilic ONLY: Raining spiders.
Surely you already know what kind of umbrella or hat you are going to wear for the experience!
Watching the video was cool, though.