There’s a standing joke that some young men learn to play the guitar solely to attract the opposite sex. If that is true, they are not alone in the animal — or, more precisely, arachnid — world. According to researchers at Oxford University, spiders can tune their webs to help catch prey or attract a mate, controlling the web’s tension and stiffness so the silk transmits vibrations in different frequencies, like a plucked guitar string. "Spiders use vibrations not only from prey which is caught in their web, where obviously, it’s important that they know where it is and what it might be," researcher Beth Mortimer told Sky News. "Vibrations are also important in courtship. A lot of males will actually generate a very specific kind of musical pattern, which the females can use to determine not only that they’re a male, but they’re the right species and whether she might want to mate with them as well." Mortimer added that spiders also use the information to assess if the web is wearin...
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