Australia is renowned for having some of the world’s deadliest animals, but we also have some of the quickest.
Our Splendid peacock spiders, known for their vibrant courtship displays, have set a new record for the fastest acceleration ever recorded in jumping spiders.
Associate Professor Ajay Narendra, from Macquarie University in Sydney, said when they tracked the spiders they also noted they experienced gravitational forces higher than fighter pilots while leaping distances 15 times their body length.
Associate Professor Narendra said this was the first detailed investigation of jump biomechanics in an Australian spider species.
“These spiders are so small you could fit four or five of them on your thumbnail.”
Study co-author Anna Seibel said the detailed analyses of the jumps was made possible by using high-speed videography.
“We had the spiders jump across a four-centimetre gap from a take-off platform to a landing platform, which we filmed at 5000 frames per second using a high-speed camera,” Ms Seibel.
She said jumping spiders employed a semi-hydraulic system to power their jumps.
“Unlike humans and other animals who contract and extend their muscles to create movement, spiders instead pump haemolymph – a fluid similar to blood that circulates through their bodies – into their legs to create the pressure needed for leg extension and jumping.
“This remarkable system allows the Australian Splendid peacock spiders to achieve extraordinary acceleration despite their miniature size.”
Associate Professor Narendra said despite their delicate appearance, the tiny spiders had evolved remarkable ways to handle intense gravitational forces during jumps that could reach more than 13 times gravity, far greater than the 9G extremes experienced by fighter pilots.
“For animals like us with more rigid bodies, the ability to withstand G-forces is far more limited than for spiders, whose soft and fluid-filled bodies deal with this pressure in a far better way,” he said.
He said the findings could also have implications for robotics development.
“Jumping spiders have exceptional ability to control their jumps to reach specific targets – whether to land on surfaces or to catch small fast-moving insects.
“Robotics researchers are likely to be inspired to build robots based on the semi-hydraulic systems of jumping spiders that have efficient goal-directed movements.”
Read the full study: Sexual dimorphism in jump kinematics and choreography in peacock spiders.
