A study demonstrates that urban spiders construct webs to block noise.

• A study published in Current Biology reveals that North American spiders can alter how their webs transmit vibrations.

• Spiders in urban environments can build webs that filter out loud ambient vibrations, while those from quieter rural spaces build webs that amplify biologically relevant vibrations they need to pick up in their noisy environment.

• The study, led by researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, found that spiders can alter how they receive vibratory information in loud environments.

• Spiders, unlike their orb-shaped cousins, use real-time vibrations in the web to sense when there’s prey in it, then jump out and inject them with venom.

• The spiders built their webs in noisy city and rural areas, with controlled vibrations sent through them to record energy transmission.

• The difference between city and rural spiders only emerged when the spiders were blasted with loud white noise, suggesting that spiders built their webs differently to manage ambient noise.

• The study raises questions about the implications for animal communities living in rapidly urbanising spaces around the world.

• Shannon Olsson, a researcher in urban ecology, chemical ecology, and sustainability, suggests that chronic exposure to urban environments impacts the way spiders build their webs and respond to environmental cues.

• The study also raises questions about whether these changes are an adaptation to urban noise and whether they affect prey capture.

• The study underscores the need to study and communicate the diverse consequences of human beings on wildlife, as seen in the mythology of the Cherokee, an indigenous North American people.