Ever walked past a spider’s web and noticed it’s got zigzags woven through it? Congratulations! You have observed stabilimenta, a kind of “extra touch” that spiders weave into their webs that's made out of silk. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Thing is, for a while there, we didn’t really know what they were for. Now, new research has shown how these decorations could serve a functional purpose in helping a spider to detect the vibrations of ensnared prey from a greater number of detection points across its web.

Spiders’ webs come in all shapes and sizes, from funnel webs to sheet webs and the classic orb web – the sort you imagine for Halloween decorations. A fairly common feature in orb webs is stabilimenta: thre

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