BEACHCOMBER 108 YEARS OLD AND INCREASINGLY ARACHNOPHOBIC...

SPIDER-MAN, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can.

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Or so the lyrics of his theme song say, but even allowing for exaggeration, can we really believe it? Over the past decade, research has increasingly suggested that Spider-Man has not been keeping up with arachnid evolution, particularly in the behaviour of so-called pirate spiders.

The piracy consists in invading others' webs, killing the occupants, eating them and stealing their homes. This has been known for a century or more, but the gruesome details of how they perform their crimes has only recently become clear and evidence suggests that their methods have become more sophisticated and more devious.