Spiders have lived alongside people for thousands of years, so it’s not surprising that we know a lot about their lives.. But despite this, there were still several mysteries that scientists could not solve. One of them: how spiders detect odors. Now, in a new study, scientists seem to have been able to shed light on this mystery, writes Science Alert.

In their work, the scientists demonstrated that male spiders use the olfactory hairs on the pore walls, also known as sensilla, on their legs as a “nose.”. This helps them detect sex pheromones released by female spiders.

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The study authors note that their discovery ends a decade-long search for the elusive sensilla, which have now been identified and mapped.. The scientists' discovery also opens up the possibility of in-depth study of the mechanism underlying spiders' sense of smell..

Earlier research showed that spiders evolved around 400 million years ago and are famous for their sense of vibration.. Moreover, some species, such as jumping spiders, have excellent vision, but until now surprisingly little was known about their sense of smell..

Previously, much evidence had been found that spiders could detect odors, such as sex pheromones, but two questions still remained open:.

In simple terms, scientists still could not understand how spiders detect odors in the first place.. In a new study, scientists have found answers to both of these questions.. First, they were able to discover previously overlooked sensilla with pores on the walls on the walking legs of male wasp spiders (Argiope bruennichi).. Scientists have also demonstrated that spiders can use them to detect sex pheromones in the air with high sensitivity.. Further, scientists also discovered that sensilla with pores on the walls are not at all unique to wasp spiders, but are distributed throughout the spider tree of life.

In the study, scientists examined male and female wasp spiders using high-resolution electron microscopy. They discovered thousands of sensilla with pores on the walls on all the walking legs of males, and also identified the specific features of these sensilla, in fact revealing that they differ from those previously found in insects and other arthropods.

Sensillae with pores are located on the upper part of the legs of males, in areas that do not come into contact with the surface during locomotion, capturing prey, or mating.. This complements the distribution of "

Scientists now believe that structures located on the top of spiders' legs likely capture airborne odors.. No less curious is the fact that sensilla with pores on the walls were discovered by scientists only in adult male spiders, but not in young males and females - this indicates that they perform an important function during the search for a partner.

The scientists then took the study further and examined the wider presence of sensilla on the pore walls of 19 additional species, spanning 16 families across the spider tree of life.. The results indicate that these structures are found in most species and are also characteristic of males.

However, sensilla are absent in basally branching spider groups, such as the basal trap spiders found in Asia. The finding suggests that sensilla on the pore walls evolved independently several times within spiders and were lost in some lineages.

Previously, Focus wrote that spiders could theoretically eat all the people on the planet in a year.