Why do flies scream if they are caught by a spider?

Manually removing a spider's strands from the fly that was almost into a cocoon would have been a monumental task and I'm surprised and also appreciate your patience for removing the strands, without hurting the fly. However, why do flies scream? They scream for their life. Isn't that a trivial issue? read more

Well, some of the silk is sticky and some of it is, well non-stick as it were. No guesses for which type of silk the spider steps upon when it traverses its web. Stickiness is a big issue. read more

To do this, they stridulate, use vibrations from their legs, abdomen, or pedipalps, or use pheromone laden webbing. Since female spiders regularly eat males and their young, they couldn't care if their victims screamed or not. They might take a threatening fang bearing pose or release irritating hairs from their bodies. read more

The duo collected webs of the common cross spider (Araneus diadematus) from around the UC-Berkeley campus and mounted them on a horizontal stick frame, so they had a neutral charge. They then dropped dead bees, flies and aphids onto the web and filmed their collisions with a high-speed camera. read more