Have you ever seen a spider spin its web high in the branches between two trees? Bet it reminded you of Peter Parker of the Spider Man fame! But how is a spider able to reach between this distance which is often more than several metres wide?
The answer begins with the spider’s ability to transform liquid silk inside its special glands into solid threads. The spider does this by physically pulling the spider silk through its spinnerets – silk-secreting organs on its abdomen.
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Once the thread is started, the spider lifts its spinnerets into the breeze. It’s the breeze that is the secret to the spider’s ability to spin a web from one tree to another. Spider silk is very lightweight. Any slight breeze – even convection currents from a patch of ground warmed in the sun can carry the thread from tree to tree.
Although the thread isn’t sticky or gluey, it can still stick to the tree. Most likely, it just gets tangled on small branches that stick out from trees or it adheres due to static electrical forces, the same way paper will stick to a pen that has been rubbed on your hair. At this point, the spider can use the thread to “tightrope walk”, that is, walk along the web from one tree to another. Usually, the spider is hanging underneath the thread on its journey from tree to tree.
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Many spiders build new webs each night or day depending on when they hunt. And spiders recycle – some eat their old webs and use the digested silk to produce new ones. Did you know that?
Bottom line: The breeze is the key to a spider’s ability to spin a web between two trees.
This was adapted from teenkidnews.com
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