Overview
- The spider was first seen by Greg Anderson in 2022 and Macquarie University researchers filmed its behaviour during a 10-day field study that they published this week, June 22, 2026.
- The animal constructs a conical, spring-actuated snare of bundled tension lines that a biting ant detaches to trigger a rapid launch into a web about 30 cm above.
- High-speed and infrared video captured launches with accelerations reported up to roughly 1,367 m/s², a force comparable to severe vehicle crashes that helps fling single ants quickly out of trail areas.
- Researchers say the trap appears specialised for the territorial green tree ant Oecophylla smaragdina and hypothesise the spider applies a chemical cue to provoke biting, but that pheromone idea is unproven.
- Key open tasks are formally describing and naming the species (provisionally placed in Propostira), testing the chemical-lure hypothesis, and studying how this tactic evolved to let a small spider safely harvest dangerous ants.