How to catch the wind: spider hairs specialized for sensing the movement of air

Most arthropods are hairy creatures. Some of them have several hundreds of thousands of hairs on their exoskeleton which in the majority of cases serve mechanosensory functions. Filiform hairs or trichobothria, as they are called in the arachnids, respond to the slightest movement of the surrounding air. They have repeatedly been shown to be involved in the guidance of escape and prey capture behavior and are indeed among the most sensitive biosensors known to date. Accordingly, the mechanical interaction between the air and the hair which is deflected and thus adequately stimulated by viscous forces is very close and to a large extent follows principles known in fluid mechanics. Both the experimental and theoretical analysis of this interaction has reached considerable depth. Using spider trichobothria as the main example the present review article strives to explain in a simple way the main mechanical parameters to be considered and how hair morphology and mechanics bring about such remarkable sensitivity.