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Spider Web Covers Field

Posted by michael on from the arachnophobia dept.

doconnor writes "A huge spider web covering a clover field was found by biology professor Brian Thair. It was made by millions of spiders and was thick enough to hold coins. It wasn't sticky for catching insects. It's not known why the spiders did it. CBC News has an article and an interview in RealAudio."

15 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. The spiders were probably.. by Kaeru+the+Frog · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..tired of people throwing coins at them.

  2. Check the World Record by immanis · · Score: 5, Informative
    from Guinnes Book Of World Records :

    Largest Outdoor Spiders' Web In October, 1998, a cobweb that covered the entire 4.54-ha (11.2-acre) playing field at Kineton High School, Warwick, England, was discovered by Ken Thompson - the school's caretaker. It had been created by thousands of black money spiders.

    I seem to remember another huge one that was ongoing, but I don;t remember where I saw it...

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    1. Re:Check the World Record by GigsVT · · Score: 3, Funny

      discovered by Ken Thompson

      What they don't tell you is that this was the inspiration for the network centric nature of UNIX. Thompson, being a visionary, knew that there eventually would be a world wide web of UNIX systems.

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  3. Just a misunderstanding by L.+VeGas · · Score: 5, Funny

    They heard about the World Wide Web and assumed it was their responsibility.

    bwaaaa haaa haaa

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  4. What the spiders were thingking: by Unknown+Poltroon · · Score: 3, Funny

    1. Spin big web.
    2: ??????????
    3: Big Profits!!!

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    1. Re:What the spiders were thingking: by falzer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Finally step two has been found:
      2: Get people to put coins on the web.

  5. Ssshhh... by jki · · Score: 5, Funny
    There were "in the order of tens of millions of spiders running frantically back and forth," but they weren't interacting with each other. Since the spiders didn't seem to care if an occasional insect stumbled into their construction, Thair doesn't think it was built for trapping purposes.

    Don't tell anyone, but I think I have found a secret way to control the spiders by using gnuplot...

  6. It's obvious why the spiders did it... by psyconaut · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...they were tired of making damn crop circles trying to get our attention!!!!

    DUH! ;-)

    -psy

  7. wow by tps12 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sounds like a job for young Bilbo Baggins and his faithful Elven blade, Sting!

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  8. Radio Telescope by heliocentric · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think they are trying to receive communications from deep space and begin their plans for place travel. This is just to compete with the humans at the Arecibo radio telescope.

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  9. Worst.Journalism.Ever by Syncdata · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Please, whatever you in the CBC online news staff do, don't tell me what species of spider it was that built this structure. Oh, and also, don't include a photo, because I'm sure noone would want to see an image of this anomoly. Do your best just to speculate about why they built the web, and make sure to include a funny joke at the end, something about aliens perhaps.

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    1. Re:Worst.Journalism.Ever by lommer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's a radio show that's covering this story, so why the hell would they want pictures? The website you are looking at is the web-presence of the radio show, and isn't supposed to be anything more.

      As another poster mentioned, the reason they didn't give you the species of the spider is because it hasn't been determined yet.

      And, IMHO, the CBC is a damn good news reporting agency.

  10. Well duh... by nathanh · · Score: 5, Funny
    It was made by millions of spiders and was thick enough to hold coins. It wasn't sticky for catching insects. It's not known why the spiders did it.

    The spiders aren't trying to catch insects anymore. They're trying to catch entymologists. Far more meat on a 40 year old scientist than a 2 month old beetle.

  11. Re:Eight legged freaks? by wkitchen · · Score: 3, Funny
    A giant web that might be strong enough to catch people! That would be really scary if the story included a picture.
    I've had spiders build webs accross the frame of my front door. I can just imagine the spider thinking, "Oh man, if I can catch just one of those things, I'll never go hungry again!"
  12. Species is not yet known by shfted! · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm from Prince George. The story and pictures have been in the local papers for a couple weeks. The species of spider has not yet been identified, so how could they tell you what it is? Don't be so judgemental.

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