Question: what is a spiders web made out off
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Research is also looking at how we might mimic nature to create similarly strong materials. You can find more information on new material properties and nanotechnologies through the TechNyou site: http://technyou.edu.au/
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Spiders webs are made of spider silk which is in turn made of protein. The spiders make the silk in specialised structures called spinnerets and then extrude it by sticking it to a surface (or their legs) and pulling. This releases the stored silk and prompts the production of more.
Because the silk is entirely protein some spiders will eat their webs in the morning because its as nutritious as steak is to us.
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Hi Shaunm,
James has answered this pretty well, but just to add some more info since it is a Friday.
Spiders’ web is made of spiders’ silk, spiders silk is mainly a protein. Amino acids such as glycine and alanine make up the main bulk. There are also lipids (fats), sugars, ions, and pigments.
Different species of spiders have differing numbers of spinnerets, these are the external parts on the spider that allows them to manipulate the silk, and this in away defines what they can do with the silk.
The cool thing about silk is that it can be used for numerous things.
If you go out into a paddock in the afternoon, and get the angle of the sun right, you might be able to see long thing strings of silk floating through the air. This is gossamer, and spiders will let out a line of this silk that catches the wind and allows them to disperse.
Then of course there are the webs we see. But wall spiders like huntsman will also use the silk, often as a safety line. So if you watch one climbing along a wall closely, you will see them putting a very fine bit of silk down, this in case they fall.
Trip lines or alarm lines are often used by spiders that don’t use webs and live on the ground. They will put out lines that when animals come past and touch them it alerts the spider.
Some spiders will even use the silk for reproduction in making sperm webs and cocooning egg sacs.
Spiders are cool
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hey shaunm. To add to james and Dustin’s comments, spider silk can be extremely strong too. Its tensile strength (the maximum stress that a material can withstand while being stretched or pulled) is comparable to that of high-grade alloy steel.
The toughest known spider silk is produced by the species Darwin’s bark spider (Caerostris darwini): The C. darwini silk is more than twice as tough as any previously described silk, and over 10 times tougher than Kevlar.
Super strong stuff!!.
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Nicely covered, everyone! 🙂
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