Arachnophobia is one of the most common fears, and among the many possible motivations there is the fact that spiders move in a “not very human” way, Taking at high speed and walking on a decidedly high number of legs. It would be to think that their characteristic is intimately linked to the fact that they have, in fact, eight legsbut a new study published on BIORXIV (and still waiting for peer review) suggests that there is at least one kind of tarantula that does not even need the “complete set”: Even when he loses two legs, he continues to move with the same efficiency.
Here your legs. The tarantula in question belongs to the species Davus Pentaloriswhich in English is known by the common name of “Tarantula with the tiger of Guatemala”, with reference to one of its two places of origin (the other is Mexico) and the appearance of its back. About 5 cm long, it is famous (at least among the Arachnophytes) for its speed of movement and for the fact that, when loses a paw, is able to make it regrow within one or two months.
The team that conducted the study therefore decided to film five specimens before the loss of two legs and during the “regrowth” period, in the hypothesis that the absence of two arts would have led the Tarantole to move more slowly and to change too The way of walking.
Very quick adaptation. In reality, a video analysis has shown exactly the opposite: even without two legs (those that have been removed are those that are lost more often in nature), the Tarantols have moved at their usual speed. Not immediately, of course: animals they needed a couple of days to adapt and change their bearing in order to exploit six legs and not eight. But once used to, the Tarantole started to live their usual life again, in the patient, the missing limbs would seek.
According to the authors of the study, the discovery could also be applied in the field of the robotic arts studyinventing machines capable of self-conceiving its bearing in case of damage to the body.
