The Secret Behind House Spider’s Sticky Web

in #nature7 years ago

Have you ever paused a minute to think about this little creature called Spider and how they stick to our walls.

The American house spider, scientific name (Parasteatoda tepidariorum) produces a web with adhesion that can be strong enough to stick to a wall or weak enough to detach from the ground and thus act as a spring-loaded trap for walking prey.

How Does The Spider Produce Both Strong and Weak Anchors for its Web with a Single type of Glue?

The spider anchors its web to a wall, slab, a ceiling, or a similar surface by weaving highly adhesive patches of silk known as scaffolding discs, which are strong enough to withstand the impact of flying prey.

Researchers at the University of Akron, Ohio, U.S.A., have discovered that, on the other hand, the patches of silk that are attached to the ground called gumfoot discs which have an entirely different architecture, or construction.

With far fewer attachment points than scaffolding discs, gumfoot discs allow the web to detach with ease and yank off the ground of any prey that has walked into it.

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Source: https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/102014008

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