ArticleJournal of the Royal Society, Interface2015
Unpicking the signal thread of the sector web spider Zygiella x-notata.
Article in Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- The effect of different structural decoration geometries on vibration propagation in spider orb webs.PloS one · 2025Article
- Article
- Unique behavioural modifications in the web structure of the cave orb spider Meta menardi (Araneae, Tetragnathidae).Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Decoding the locational information in the orb web vibrations of Araneus diadematus and Zygiella x-notata.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2019Article
- Remote monitoring of vibrational information in spider webs.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2018Article
- Sensing fluctuating airflow with spider silk.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2017Article
- Extended spider cognition.Animal cognition · 2017Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Remote sensing allows an animal to extend its morphology with appropriate conductive materials and sensors providing environmental feedback from spatially removed locations. For example, the sector web spider Zygiella x-notata uses a specialized thread as both a structural bridge and signal transmitter to monitor web vibrations from its retreat at the web perimeter. To unravel this model multifunctional system, we investigated Zygiella's signal thread structure with a range of techniques, including tensile testing, laser vibrometry, electron microscopy and behavioural analysis. We found that signal threads varied significantly in the number of filaments; a result of the spider adding a lifeline each time it runs along the bridge. Our mechanical property analysis suggests that while the structure varies, its normalized load does not. We propose that the signal thread represents a complex and fully integrated multifunctional structure where filaments can be added, thus increasing absolute load-bearing capacity while maintaining signal fidelity. We conclude that such structures may serve as inspiration for remote sensing design strategies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.