''Mallos gregalis'' is a

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

belonging to the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Dictynidae. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. Discovered by French naturalists in the previous century, ''M. gregalis'' were again brought to light in the 1970s by Wes Burgess through his research on their social lifestyle. ''M. gregalis'' live in groups containing thousands of individuals together on a sheet-like

spider web A spider web, spiderweb, spider's web, or cobweb (from the archaic word ''Wikt:coppe, coppe'', meaning 'spider') is a structure created by a spider out of proteinaceous spider silk extruded from its spinnerets, generally meant to catch its prey ...

. Like other social spiders, the unique qualities of ''M. gregalis web help make their social lifestyle possible. Their web preferentially transmits the vibrations of

flies Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwin ...

caught in the web while dampening out the vibrations caused by other spiders, thus allowing the ''M. gregalis'' spiders to distinguish between the prey and each other. The smell of previously eaten fly bodies helps attract other flies to ''M. gregalis''′ web.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1312822 Dictynidae Endemic spiders of Mexico Spiders described in 1909