Current Biology researchers found the Australian ballista spider uses a cone-shaped silk trap that hurls green tree ants into its web at up to 4.4 meters per second.
40 milliseconds after an ant bites the cone, the silk detaches from its anchors and snaps back, pulling the ant nearly 30 centimeters with accelerations above 1,300 meters per second squared.
15 to 60 taut threads store the elastic energy, creating a trapping system the authors say outperforms muscle-driven motion and even other catapult-like spider webs.
All observations showed the spider targeting only green tree ants, suggesting the cone may carry species-specific chemical cues as well as a mechanical trigger.
That specialization helps the spider exploit aggressive ants from colonies of millions while separating a single prey item from dangerous nestmates within a fraction of a second.