It's called Darwin's Bark Spider,
and the female has a remarkable strategy.
Like a real life spider woman,
she sprays strands of silk in one long
continuous flow.
The threads fan out like a sail
and drift on air currents
blowing across the water.
Every few seconds
she keeps the strands together
to stop them spreading too widely.
The breeze will do the rest,
blowing the threads into a single line
and a 25 meter bridge.
Now she must reinforce her bridge
because her web will hang from it.
But there's something
bouncing the line at the other end.
Another Darwin spider
is trying to take
advantage of her hard work.
She must deal
with the intruder head on.
The cut line
is an inconvenience,
but no more than that.
With hooks on the tips of each leg,
she gathers in the thread.
It won't go to waste
as she'll eat it later.
When it's all reeled in,
she sprays again
out streams, another
25 meter bridging line.
How a spider
no bigger than a thumbnail
can produce so much silk so quickly,
has baffled scientists.
And it's no ordinary silk.
It's the toughest natural fiber
on the planet.
Tougher than steel.
And it needs to be tough
to span the wide river.
With the bridge taut
and the ground anchor in place.
It's time to construct a trap.
These spiders can build the world's
largest orb webs up to two meters
wide.
A few hours from the first spray,
a bridging line.
The job is done.
Now her strategy is simple.
Sit and wait.
And there's one
final bout of silk production,
shrink wrapping her food for later.