See how a tiny spider hoists massive prey into its web | Science News

Filmed in a lab box, a little Steatoda spider tries to capture a much bigger roach to feast on. Spiders didn’t evolve pulleys with wheels for lifting massive loads, but tangle web spiders like these have a silky alternative. The spider attaches one silk strand after another to the struggling roach until the silk supports all of the roach’s weight. Then the spider keeps adding shorter and shorter strands that tug the monster weight of the prey up toward the main part of the web. Read more: Video: Gabriele Greco/University of Trento