New research from the Hebets Lab at University of Nebraska Lincoln: _Agelenopsis_ grass spiders in noisy urban environments weave webs with built-in noise dampening—as opposed to their rural cousins, who built more sensitive webs when researchers turned up the volume.

From the NYT article linked below:

> “While animal sensory systems can, and do, certainly adapt over evolutionary time to changing environmental conditions, this takes time,” Dr. Hebets said. “Behavioral changes, however, can be immediate.”

This offers an intriguing tangent: webs are part of a spider's sensory apparatus but are constantly re-built, and behavioural plasticity lets them "evolve" much faster—an evolution you can't track by looking at physical traits alone.

Anecdotally, _Agelenopsis_ are masters at adapting their flat sheet webs to even the unlikeliest urban environments! So it's not a surprise they are adaptable in other ways as well.

Paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.02.041  

NYT article: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/science/spiders-webs-noise-pollution.html // https://archive.ph/Mu7KJ

#Arachnews #spiders #Araneae #Agelenidae

Diese Rostrote Winkelspinne (Tegenaria ferruginea, Syn.: Malthonica ferruginea) hatte sich bei uns ins Haus verirrt und wurde nach einer kurzen Fotosession in die Freiheit entlassen.

#Trichterspinnen #Agelenidae #Spinnen #spiders #arachnidae #spider #Artenvielfalt #nature #natur

Last night instead of doing laundry I went for a walk by the lake and found some marvellous creatures.

1. Grass spider (_Agelenopsis_)
2. Huge carpenter ant (_Camponotus_) alate
3. _Porcellio_ isopod, half-molted
4. Ridiculous weevil (Cryptorhynchinae)?

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders #bugstodon #insects #ants #beetles #weevils #crustaceans #isopods

#Araneae #Agelenidae #Hymenoptera #Formicidae #Crustacea #Isopoda #Porcellionidae #Coleoptera #Curculionidae

🚨 New Travis McEnery video!! 🚨

The long-awaited sequel to his first video on Agelenidae (hobo spiders, giant house spiders, barn funnel weavers). https://youtu.be/y2LVZhYMtLw

I always learn something new from his videos, and I know a LOT about spiders.

#arachnids #spiders #Agelenidae

I don't know what possessed me to go to Trillium Park today of all days. Oh well. There are still plenty of _Pardosa_ wolf spiders to be found, but the place belongs to the grass spiders (_Agelenopsis_) now.

Many people mix up wolf and grass spiders; click through for comparison pictures and helpful alt text.

#ArthroBeauty #DailySpiderPic #spiders #Araneae #Agelenidae #Lycosidae #Araneidae #OntarioPlace #macro

Yesterday after the torrential rain I went to High Park hoping to find the _Cladonia_ again, but I got sidetracked and ended up at the other end of the park at a stone wall full of hacklemesh weavers (family Amaurobiidae).

However there were also other spiders—funnel weavers, I think, or else very funnel-weaver-like amaurobiids—and the small sheet-web weavers.

#SpiderSunday #DailySpiderPic #spiders #Araneae #Amaurobiidae #Agelenidae? #Linyphiidae #macro