Scientist Malcolm Rosenthal works at UC Berkeley and studies the mating habits of spiders. That means observing a lot of spiders have sex. And there's more to the observations than just the visual.
Rosenthal can actually hear the spiders courting and mating.
Many species including wolf spiders make a kind of mating call by tapping their legs on the ground, vibrating their abdomens, and rubbing together their pedipalps, little appendages on their faces.
Rosenthal makes a recording of these vibrations and movements with a “doppler laser vibrometer.” Spiders are too small to make noises we can hear; but with the vibrometer, we can translate their movements into sound.
Rosenthal then listens and analyzes the recordings to learn more about the inner-workings of spider mating.
For the full surround sound effect, you should throw on a pair of headphones before you listen!
This story comes to us from Chris Hoff and Sam Harnett of The World According to Sound podcast. They’re partnering with the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco to help us reimagine California in the rich way blind people experience it every day. The project has additional support from California Humanities.