The Australian jungle huntsman spider is the fastest arachnid in the world, reaching a top speed of nearly 3.6 meters per second, according to a new lab study.<\/p>\n
The Moroccan flik-flik spider was long considered the fastest in the world, reaching speeds of almost 1.7 m\/s, but some experts disagreed that this was a form of sprinting.<\/p>\n
To settle this debate, researchers from Germany's University of Greifswald and Imperial College London conducted a laboratory experiment with more than 160 live spider species from the UK, Australia, North America, and southern Europe, as well as dozens of specimens purchased from pet stores.<\/p>\n
\u00ab"We measured maximum sustainable running speed in 236 individuals representing 162 species," the researchers wrote in a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed study published in bioaRxiv.<\/p>\n
\u00ab"To ensure maximum coverage, we supplemented these measurements with published data for an additional 96 species.".<\/p>\n
The spiders were individually weighed and tested for maximum speed on A4 and A3 grid paper, while cameras were used to monitor the biomechanics of their movements.<\/p>\n
The illustrations were mounted on a rigid plastic tray or metal sheet, and liquid paraffin was applied to the walls to prevent them from sliding off for climbing animals.<\/p>\n Researchers found that the huntsman spider collected in Queensland was the fastest of all, reaching a top speed of 3.59 m\/s.<\/p>\n The study found that a spider's running speed roughly correlated with its body mass.<\/p>\n \u00abRunning speed increased significantly with increasing body mass: from a minimum value of 0.018 m\/s measured in the money spider Maso sundevalli<\/em> (body mass 1 mg), up to a maximum of 3.59 meters per second, recorded in the huntsman spider Heteropoda cervina\u00bb,<\/em> \u2014 they noted.<\/p>\n However, significant differences in speed were observed among spiders with very similar body mass.<\/p>\n As an example of this discrepancy, they cited data showing that the orange purse spider (Calommata signata<\/em> ) and the tube spider ( Segestria florentina<\/em> ) weigh 200 mg each, but their maximum speed differs by 28 times.<\/p>\n According to scientists, larger spiders tend to run faster unless they are so large that their heavy abdomens create excessive strain on them.<\/p>\n There are some notable exceptions, such as the tiny orange goblin spider. Oonops pulcher<\/em> , which weighs only 0.1 mg, but moves at a speed of more than 0.2 m\/s.<\/p>\n The spider was so fast for its size that researcher Shreyas Kuchibhotla from ICL said New Scientist magazine,<\/em> that the spider "practically teleported.".<\/p>\n Scientists say that running faster is also associated with longer legs.<\/p>\n \u00ab"High running performance, controlling for both body size and ancestry, was associated with relatively longer legs\u2026 but not with lean legs," they wrote.<\/p>\n Scientists say a spider's running speed depends on whether it hunts on the ground or in foliage, and whether it moves primarily vertically or upside down.<\/p>\n \u00ab"These differences may well alter both the selective value of running speed and the way it is realized," they wrote.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" According to a new lab study, the Australian jungle huntsman spider is the fastest arachnid in the world, reaching a top speed of nearly 3.6 meters per second. For a long time\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","hvn-theme-has-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19642"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161310,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19642\/revisions\/161310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}