| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (45 min. 23 sec.) ; 275300993 bytes |
| Summary |
The Silk Spinners, the third episode of Life In The Undergrowth screens on ABC TV on Sunday February 26 at 7.30pm with host David Attenborough revealing silk to be the invertebrates' great invention. From the protective stalks of lacewing eggs to the amazing hanging threads of New Zealand's glow worms, they use it in a huge range of ways. The spiders, though, have taken silk spinning to extremes.The infamous redback spider of Australia has moved into areas where people live because the flat surfaces we create suit its unusual method of catching prey. The program shows how these clever spiders make vertical threads down to the ground, ending in a blob of sticky glue. When prey get stuck to these, they are "pinged" up into the air by the taut silk lines, to be consumed by the spider at leisure. To capture this took a heady mixture of patient cameramen, infra-red cameras and ultra-high speed video.The common wolf spider has no web, but the female is a gentle parent, encasing her eggs in silk and carrying the precious bundle wherever she goes. Then there is the bolas spider that uses a ball of sticky silk soaked in a copy of moth pheromone to lure them in. Finally we meet communal spiders: millions of individuals living and feeding together in a vast, towering web - an arachnophobe's nightmare perhaps but truly fascinating behaviour nevertheless!PRODUCTION DETAILS:A BBC/Animal Planet co-production, Life in the Undergrowth is presented by Sir David Attenborough and produced by Mike Salisbury. Mike Gunton is executive producer |
| Event |
Broadcast 2014-05-17 at 18:30:00 |
| Notes |
Classification: G |
| Subject |
Insects -- Larvae.
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Invertebrates -- Behavior.
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Spider webs.
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Spiders -- Food.
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Wolf spiders.
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New Zealand.
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| Form |
Streaming video
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| Author |
Attenborough, David, host
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