 |
| The structure of an Orb web |
I have a new found respect for spiders and how they work! Found some very interesting things about the way that they craft their webs and how they operate. Heres a snapshot...
- The silk they spin is strong enough to rival steel
- 40,000 different species
- Many different web types including sheet web, dome or tent web, orb web (most common), tangle web, funnel web, Tubular web
- Webs can be vertical, horizontal or at any angle in between...
- Different types of silk are produced for different jobs- sticky capture silk, fluffy capture silk...
- Simply catching it within the orb web and then wrapping it in silk
- net-casting spider throws its net over the insect
- Bolas spider throws thread with an adhesive bubble at end which decoys prey through a chemical substance
- Trapdoor spider- hides in a tunnel that can be closed with a door and when anything walks over the single thread the door opens and the spider grabs the prey!
- Funnel weaver- spins a horizontal mat and waits in a funnel at the end for the prey
- Messy space web- the prey is tangled within the messy structure
- 3D tangle web- used by spiders such as the black widow within a horizontal dense sheet of non adhesive threads, flying insects fly against threads and tumble onto mat below where they're grabbed
I agree, it is interesting when you look more into the technical side of the web. This is something which I have never considered before, and I never realised that there was this much information behind the creation of the web. I don't know how we would use this information within our project though, but it is something which I have found fascinating to read!
ReplyDeleteJennifer