A bizarre species of spider from the remote rainforests of far north Queensland springs a nasty surprise when its prey is lured into its web.
The tiny and newly discovered ballista spider - named after an ancient Roman weapon that used a spring to launch a stone - uses an ingenious method to literally launch its prey into the air.
A fussy eater, the spider targets a single species, the territorial and aggressive green tree ant (Oecophylla smaragdina), which it lures with a fragrant pheremone.
And its hunting technique is extraordinary.
First, the nocturnal spider builds an anchor point on a leaf, a branch, or the forest floor, before spending up to four hours spinning up to 60 vertical tension lines bundled together in a cone near the ground.
