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Creature of the Week  Topic: Spinning spiders Here at Creature of the Week, we offer you direct access to a different animal expert every week. Please feel free to read the question and answer session. However, if you'd like to add your own questions or comments, you'll need This conversation is now closed. But you can still talk to others with similar interests. Visit our new Conversations area to discuss all things science, travel, animals, health, history, adventure, exploration and education.
Spinning spiders
utti: making silk
Spider silk can be collected and made into a cloth, very much like silk worm silk. You can spool the silk from some kinds of egg sacs or draw it directly from the spider. Spiders make many different kinds of silk and some of these silks are much finer and softer than silk worm silk. The problem is that it is much more difficult to collect enough silk to do anything with it. However, a few laboratories are trying to make synthetic spider silks.
batl: strongest silk
Black widow silk is very strong, but I am not sure if it is the strongest. I am familiar with a spider from the SW US that appears to have a stronger silk but I do not know if it has been tested.
There was a recent story on PBS recently which said that somebody was trying to collect enough black widow silk to make a flak jacket or a bullet-proof vest (the silk is supposed to be better than Kevlar) but they were having difficulty getting enough of it. Many years ago there was an attempt to produce silk from Nephila spiders, but they only produced a few small items which ended up in a museum in Paris. You can find the story in Gertsch’s book “American Spiders”.
robjk: daddy long legs
“Daddy Long Legs” usually refers to opilionids, which are not spiders and do not make webs. However, many people also use the term for true spiders, such as cellar spiders (Pholcidae). The pholcids are web weavers, which are commonly found in houses.
hollyjack: siesta sites
Most spiders will try to find or a make a nice retreat in some crack or crevice, perhaps under a rock, under bark or in a rolled leaf. Many are also in the open, but are well camouflaged. If you check orb webs during the day, you might be able to spot the ‘signal line’ which extends from the hub of the web to the hiding place of the spider.
Only somewhere over half of the 36,000 or so species of spiders spin webs
they use to catch prey. The others are active hunters, or sit-and-wait types,
although some of these may use silk as signal lines to alert them to prey.
>by utti,
>Can spider web be turned into silk like a silkworm's cocoon?
People have tried it, except for rifle sights, etc., I don't think its been
practical. Some DNA researchers have experimented with replicating spider
silk, but I haven't heard much about this lately.
>by bat1,
>Which species of spider spins the largest web &/or the stongest silk? Also,
Latrodectus, or widow spider silk is quite strong, but nobody has tested them
all, nor will they ever.
>by robjk,
>According to Bill Nye the science guy, a Daddy Long Legs is not a spider
>because it does not produce silk or venom. If this is true, what are they,
and >why does everyone I know tell me they have seen a Daddy Long Legs in a
web?
Bill is right in one sense. The Opiliones, or harvestmen, are not spiders, do
not spin silk, do not have venom, are not spiders. One family of 38 in the
order is called daddylonglegs. The remaining 37 families do not have a common
name, most are tropical, and they can have some really strange shapes.
This is one of the most popular of the arachnid myths.
There is one family of spiders, the Pholcidae, called cellar or daddylonglegs
spiders, but they aren't harvestmen, but real spiders. They spin a web and
have venom, which is harmless.
>by hollyjack,
>Mon Aug 2 07:52:19 1999
>Where do the spiders that spin their webs at night stay during the day?
They hide out on vegetation or human structure near the web site (not the
Internet type <g>). Some spin orbweavers (I'm assuming that's what you're
talking about) spin a new web every night after dark and eat it a dawn. Most
build a permanent web and maintain it as needed. Many of these may stay head
down (although one genus stays head up) in the center of the web, others may hide at on of the corners of the web during the day.
R. G. Breene
Batl: Is silk stronger than steel?
The strength of spider silk has been exaggerated from time-to-time. It is stronger than silk and, according to a letter in Science magazine, it is actually weaker then Kelvar. However, due to its elasticity it can absorb more than 3 times more energy before it breaks. Silk is no match for fused silica which is 14 times stronger and can absorb 22 times as much energy.
Have to see it to give you a species, but it's a female (or near adult
female) orbwever, family Araneidae. All harmless, great for gardens. I'd let it go.
RG Breene, III
Tbug1988: Where are they most likely to live?
Spiders live in a wide variety of habitats and have many different preferences. Many live close to water, under rocks or bark, in leaf litter, in bushes or grasses, on flowers, in burrows. Wood piles and trash heaps are often good places for spiders because they have plenty of places to hide
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