Back off ants, my web stinks

摘要

Spider tartare would make a juicy feast for an army of ants, if only they could make it onto their webs. It seems some arachnids build antiant shields into their silken abodes. Mark Elgar at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and Daiqin Li a1 the National University of Singapore analysed the webs of 21 batik golden web spiders {Nephila antipodiana), which are found in south-east Asia and live alongside many ant species. They detected H-pyrrolidinone on the silk. The chemical has been found on the webs of other spiders, but its function was unclear.