S2E9: Sonic Spiders

In this this episode Hannah Hunter discusses how orb weaver spiders and ogre faced spiders make use of impressive sonic strategies to hunt. This season is all about “Animals and Sound” and was extracted from Season 4 of The Animal Turn Podcast.

 Featured: 

• Time in the Field with Denise Herzing on The Animal Turn.
• Outsourced hearing in an orb-weaving spider that uses its web as an auditory sensor by Jian Zhou et al. 
• Ogre-Faced, Net-Casting Spiders Use Auditory Cues to Detect Airborne Prey by Jay A. Stafstrom et al. 

Credits:

• Claudia Hirtenfelder, producer and host 
• Hannah Hunter, co-host
• Christiaan Mentz, sound editor and producer 
• Rebecca Shen, content producer and designer (logo and episode artwork)
• Gordon Clarke, bed music composer
• Learn more about the team here. 

Support the podcast via: 

• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/TheAnimalTurn 
• Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theanimalturn 
• Buzzsprout: https://theanimalturn.buzzsprout.com/ 

Sponsor:

Thank you to the sponsors of the fourth season of The Animal Turn podcast, “Animals and Sound,” where this animal highlight was originally aired 23 March 2022 

A.P.P.L.E
Animals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.

The Sonic Arts of Place Laboratory
The SAP Lab provides workspace and equipment for students engaged in sound related activities.

Sonic Arts Studio
The Queen’s Sonic Arts Studio (formerly Electroacoustic Music Studio) was founded in 1970.

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The Animal Highlight is a spinoff and sister podcast to the award winning show, the Animal Turn Podcast.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:33 Orb Weaver Spiders
• 6:38 Ogre Faced Spiders
• 10:40 Credit

Transcript

00:00 - Introduction 

• Welcome to Season 2 of The Animal Highlight. 
• This season is focused on “Animals and Sound” and was extracted from Season 4 of The Animal Turn Podcast (Time in the Field with Denise Herzing).
• This season I am joined with a co-host, Hannah Hunter. A PhD Candidate in Geography at Queen’s University and a member of the Sonic Arts of Place Laboratory.
• This episode considers two spiders.  

02:33 – Orb Weaver Spiders

• Beautiful spiders that look similar to the spider you see in Charlotte’s Web. 
• They are impressive in size and in terms of how they hear. 
• Recent study by researchers found that Orb Weaver Spiders use their webs to capture sound. They refer to this as the spider “outsourcing their hearing” meaning that the spider isn’t constrained to their body. The thin silk strands of the web act as “hyperactive acoustic antennae.” These spiders pick up on the movements in their web through claws at the tip of their legs and that is that how they hear. By listening through their webs these spiders are also able to supersize their hearing. These spiders can also adjust to the web to their hearing needs. 

06:38 – Ogre Faced Spiders

• They look different to your average spiders. They are rather thin and they have these two huge eyes. They also purposefully camouflage themselves during the day. Their main way of catching prey is active. They create a small web in their fore front legs and they propel themselves forward to wards their prey. A study found that these spiders sometimes go backwards through “a ballistically rapid overhead back twist” to capture prey from behind. Researchers think that the spiders are hearing through their legs to do this.

10:40 - Credits

• Thank you to Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics for sponsoring The Animal Turn Podcast.
• Thank you also to the Sonic Arts Studio and the Sonic Arts of Place Laboratory who were sponsors for the fourth season of The Animal Turn podcast that was focused on “Animals and Sound” where these animal highlights were extracted from. 
• A big thank you to Hannah Hunter for co-hosting this season of The Animal Highlight
• Co-hosted by Claudia Hirtenfelder and Hannah Hunter. 
• This episode was produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and edited by Christiaan Mentz. 
• The logo and episode artwork were created by Rebecca Shen. 
• Show notes compiled by Claudia Hirtenfelder