Ballista Spider Builds Careful "Spring Loaded" Trap For Ant Prey

The spider is a new species, so doesn't have an official scientific name, but is thought to belong to the genus Propostira. The team observed the spider building carefully constructed tension lines. When these lines were cut by the green tree ant, Oecophylla smaragdina, the force of their release would send the prey flying into the air. Read more: https://www.iflscience.com/newly-discovered-spider-is-basically-a-mechanical-engineer-building-spring-loaded-snares-to-catapult-its-prey-83885 Video Credit: Narendra et al., Current Biology (2026) CC BY 4.0 Music Credit: Storyblocks