[jamest (OP)]

David wants to know whether spiders are born with the ability to spin their remarkable webs, or if they have to learn it.

[alancalverd]

The fact that webs are species-specific and quite different in detail suggests that they don't learn entirely from experience, and there's no evidence of maternal teaching - most species abandon their eggs after laying.

Equally remarkable is the octopus, a creature with no parental influence once the larvae have hatched but a very wide range of intelligent behaviors, some instinctive and some learned.

[paul cotter]

Lots of behaviours appear to be automatic, built into the genetic code somehow. Just like a kitten abandoned at birth and raised by humans will groom itself without ever having been groomed by it's mother.

[evan_au]

The machinery to manufacture multiple kinds of silk is encoded in their genes.
Why not the behavioural mechanisms to make use of it?

[Billy Fisher]

Spiders actually come with the ability to spin webs right from the start. When they hatch, they instinctively start spinning basic webs, and over time, as they grow, their skills improve and the webs get more intricate. I remember watching a tiny spider in my garden when I was younger; it was amazing how quickly it got the hang of it without any apparent learning process. So yeah, it?s pretty much hardwired in them from the beginning.