Watch This Amazing Timelapse Video of a Spider Building a Web

Spiders are capable of some incredible tricks. They can somersault, mimic other animals, and create scuba suits out of bubbles—but their most famous talent may be the most impressive one of all. A spider's web is a wonder of nature, and the timelapse video below captures the intricate handiwork that goes into spinning them.

A series of TikToks from user dinaoren0 recently highlighted the arachnids' web-building abilities. In the viral clips, a spider is shown weaving its trap over the course of a night. This older video from BBC Earth Unplugged on YouTube shows the same act in greater detail.

The garden orb web spider starts by stringing up strong bridge lines across what will be the top of its web. Once it's laid down its anchor points and frame threads to act as the trap's foundation, it's ready to start weaving its deadly spiral. The spider's dance toward the center of its web is mesmerizing to watch with the footage sped up.

The project is a lot of work, but it's worth it in the end. After constructing its silken net, the spider is rewarded when a fly gets caught in the sticky strands. You can watch the whole brutal saga play out in the video below.

Though they look like works of art, spider webs are impressive feats of engineering, first and foremost. The creatures need to take factors like light, temperature, and humidity into consideration to make their traps strong enough to catch dinner. You can read more facts about spider webs here.