Spiders and Ants Wage War in Australia

Humans aren't the only creatures in the world that wage endless wars. According to a new entomological study, spiders and ants in eastern Australia have been waging a war of attrition that has been going on for countless generations.

Eric Yip at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel has been studying Avondale spiders, also known as flat huntsman spiders, for nearly a decade.

The spiders, which hunt the particularly dry forests of eastern Australia, are pretty stunning to see. Growing to about eight inches (20 cm) wide, the huntsman boasts long-spindly legs and a terrifying large set of fangs.

What makes them most interesting to experts, however, is the fact that they are one of the few spiders that live in social groups but hunt alone. The groups are simple matriarchal societies of 100 to 300 spiders. Amazingly, the eldest female spider, the head of the group, usually mothered the entire swarm over several years, save for a few immigrants.

In this way, they are not much different from ants, and that of course can put local ant populations on edge.

According to Yip, he witnessed two instances in which bulldog ants invaded huntsman nests, even driving the spiders out and defacing their home. This caused him to wonder, "is this a common occurrence?"

To find out, the researcher reportedly set up 132 nest boxes (120 of which were colonized by huntsman spiders) throughout Australian forests.

As described in a study recently published in the journal Insectes Sociaux, seven of the nests were invaded by local bulldog ant populations in just two months.

According to Guinness World Records, the bulldog ant is the most dangerous ant in the world, known to be capable of swarming and killing human adults within 15 minutes. They aren't small either - about 2.5 cm long - with massive mandibles and a painful toxic bite.

In his observations, Yip detailed how these ferocious ants not only invaded colonies to kill all they could while driving out the stronger mother spider, but they then dragged twigs and sticks into the spider nest until it was no longer livable.

Spiders, in the long run, are both more energy efficient and better hunters than their insect counterparts, at least capable of winning the game of survival despite routine invasions.

That's why Yip suspects these invasions are not exactly the signs of winning the "war" but instead acts of desperation.