Spider Trichobothria: Spiders Can Hear with Their Hair

[NewTricks]

(Attribution Wired Magazine 2011)

Spiders Can Hear with Their Hair

Tudor Vieru

3-4 minutes

Tiny hairs on the legs of spiders apparently act as individual ears, allowing the creature to feel the moves their prey makes through the air. Thus far, researchers believe that all of these hairs were acting as components for a single, large ear that was the entire exoskeleton protecting spiders.

This idea was refuted in a new investigation, which showed that the small hairs do not work together in this manner. Rather, each of them sends an individual output, which can be isolated and heard separately by the spider.

The amount of information that can be processed in this manner is a lot larger than if all hairs acted as a single ear. However, it also requires more energy and processing power to take full advantage of this evolutionary adaptation.

The fine hairs are called trichobothria, and they can be found on the legs of spiders and other insects covered by exoskeletons. Through their construction, they are able to detect air movements occurring at a scale of one ten-billionth of a meter.

This gives the spiders extreme precision in detecting the faintest motions in their environment. The scale at which these hairs are sensitive roughly corresponds to the width of an atom. “Nobody had looked at these hairs in just the right way,” researcher Brice Bathellier explains.

“When you look at what they are mechanically optimized to do, you could design better ones,” adds the expert, who is a physicist at the Institute Of Molecular Pathology, in Vienna, Austria. He is also the coauthor of a new study detailing the findings.

The work is published in the December 14 issue of the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. “[…] Nature optimizes. Animals evolve under stringent conditions,” Bathellier goes on to explain.

As such, the team was particularly interested in learning how the spiders differentiated between a gust of wind and an actual opportunity to feed. According to the team, the speed at which each of the hairs wiggles is key.

Other researches were conducted similar to hearing studies on humans, as in focused on how much the hairs were displaces. No one thought to look at how fast this was happening before. “These hairs operate at the physical limits of sensitivity across a much broader range of frequencies,” Bathellier says.

In humans, for example, there are multiple sound receptors in the inner ear, with each of them breaking down and carrying electrical impulses belonging to only a limited range of frequencies. In spiders, that range is significantly larger, Wired reports.

“They operate like band-pass filters or microphones, not like the hairs in a human ear,” Bathellier concludes.

 

The link that follows describes the method used to test Bathellier's hypothesis. See Section 2, Materials and Methods for velocity and flow frequency (Hz)-then try to imagine doing it. 

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2011.0690

Thank you if you need to reconfigure @AdvancedSetup

[David H. Lipman]

Arachnophobia - Arachnophobia is a specific phobia brought about by the irrational fear of spiders and other arachnids such as scorpions.^[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachnophobia

[NewTricks]

Surely not you.....

[David H. Lipman]

 

LOL - No.

[AdvancedSetup]

Spiders, oh spiders, so often feared,
Creeping and crawling, with eight legs geared,
Their webs woven with such delicate skill,
A marvel of nature, no matter how still.

Some are tiny, others quite large,
Some are quite common, others quite rare,
But all have their place in the web of life,
Their role in the ecosystem, without strife.

Some spin their webs to catch their prey,
Others hunt on the ground, by night or day,
Yet all are masters of their domain,
Their eight legs weaving a perfect refrain.

They are feared, but also revered,
As symbols of patience and cunning, so clear,
For they have survived for millions of years,
Adapting and evolving, despite our fears.

So if you see a spider, don't be afraid,
For they are a part of the world we've made,
Respect their place, and let them be,
And marvel at their unique beauty.

 

[AdvancedSetup]

https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/goliath-bird-eating-tarantula

 

[NewTricks]

Just what I needed. It's quite beautiful.

Edited February 22, 2023 by NewTricks

[NewTricks]

Have a good night @AdvancedSetup

[AdvancedSetup]

You too @NewTricks

Don't forget your bedtime reading

https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/295249-philosopher-lover-of-wisdom/

 

[NewTricks]

👍 perfect.