A study has found that spiders from rural areas were less likely to build webs near light sources, whereas urban spiders were well up for it.
An extremely concerning study has suggested that urban spiders are a whole lot bolder than they used to be.
Once huddled in the corner and in the shadows to avoid the light, it seems they are becoming braver - which is of course very bad news for everyone.
And there's one species in particular that's leading the charge of the unafraid of the light brigade.
Dr Tomer Czaczkes, a biologist from the University of Regensburg in Germany, was inspired to investigate spiders and their attitudes towards light after a night-time stroll.
“I was walking down a road one night, looking at all these fats spiders in their webs on lights, and I wondered: are they evolving to like light?”
And unfortunately he was right.
A team of researchers used eggs from a common breed of spider (steatoda triangulosa) taken from urban and rural locations to see how they reacted to light when they hatched.
And what they found was that spiders from rural areas were less likely to build webs near light sources, whereas urban spiders were totally up for it.
Anyone else moving out to the country immediately?
Researchers from the University of Regensburg and the Ludwig Maximillian University, Munich teamed up with Aarhus University, Denmark to conduct the study, based on a belief that urban spiders are big fans of building webs near light sources, at it helps them find food.
Dr Czaczkes said it could also be easier to survive inside buildings in the winter, “so spiders that don’t mind the light survive better”.
Professor Adam Hart, a biologist from the University of Gloucestershire, said the findings are unsurprising. “We humans are becoming a very powerful force in evolution and the adaptation of animals and plants to the environments we create, especially in urban areas, is only likely to increase,” he told HuffPost UK.
“Those spiders that are less averse to lights can take advantage of the fact that moths, flies and other insects are attracted to such lights. With plenty of prey flying into their webs, these spiders thrive and perhaps do even better than their light-hating neighbours.
“As long as their behaviour towards light is genetic, their offspring are likely to inherit that behaviour, and bingo – we end up with urban spiders taking advantage of the environment we create.”
Why! Just why...
