Spider silk is spun from glands inside its body. Depending on the type of silk, this material is produced from one of the seven glands of the spider. No spider species has all seven glands, but many species have several. For example, weaver spiders have five silk-producing glands.
The silk leaves the gland with the help of tarry organs that have nozzle-like structures at their ends. The liquid silk is removed from the spider’s body by gravity or by being pulled by the hind legs and then solidifies. Depending on the type of tuber used to produce silk, the final product can be hard or soft.
Some silks act like cement and hold the web together, and some act like a sticky coating. Draglin silk is a very useful silk that many spiders use when trying to escape predators, but it can also be used by a spider to start the main web bases. The wheel-like web is reinforced with an auxiliary helix that helps support the spider as it builds the web. This thread is cut at intervals and replaced by a retaining spiral covered with bubbles of a glue-like substance.
While the spider appears to be in danger of being entangled in its web, not all silk is sticky. In addition, the specialized claws on the spider’s legs, along with the way it sits on the web, help keep the spider away from the sticky parts. The spider’s legs are also covered with a combination of non-sticky hairs and a chemical non-stick coating that, along with nimble movements, keep them out of trouble.
Some spiders are so good at avoiding dangerous parts of the web that they get their food from it, like the dewdrop spider. This spider lives parasitically in the webs of orb spiders, and while this one-way relationship seems like it could end badly for the dewdrop spider, in fact, it is the weaver spider that is at risk of predation by the tiny recluse spider when it sheds its skin and becomes temporarily defenseless. Takes.
