Indian summer is a great time of autumn, when you can soak up the last warm rays of the sun of the year, enjoy excellent weather, and see the past summer. But, as usual, something must spoil the barrel of honey. Web. She's everywhere. She poisons my happiness, scares me and ruins my mood. She's annoying! The web rushes towards me in the most unexpected places, even where someone passed in front of me a minute ago, even where there is no vegetation nearby.

They also say that spider web is an incredibly strong and durable material. How does a spider weave a web, what spreads it everywhere?

Algorithm for weaving a web by a spider

I read it, it turns out creating gossamer lace is a very labor-intensive process for eight-legged creatures (spiders, by the way, cannot be called insects). They work something like this:

• Having chosen a suitable place, they extract a special secret from the arachnoid warts located on the abdomen, which, when frozen, transforms into a long, thin thread;
• waiting for the breeze will pick up this thread and will carry it to some support - a twig, blade of grass, leaf, etc. and crawl to the place where the thread is caught, securely fastening it;
• form another thread repeating the first, fix it;
• crawl to the middle of the second thread and form the third thread, placing it perpendicular to the first two, and fixing it so that a figure resembling the letter Y is formed.

This is the basis of the future web. Then the spider extends several more radii from the point where the threads intersect, connecting their ends with pieces of thread. The result is a skeleton of the web, peculiar ribs with edging. Then, fluttering around this blank, the spider quickly knits a lace pattern on it.

The patterns are created using two spirals. The first, non-sticky, spider weaves from the middle of the warp, and it exactly repeats the shape of a logarithmic spiral. The second, sticky, weaves in the opposite direction and exactly repeats the shape of an Archimedean spiral.

Types of web

There are 35 thousand species of spiders on the planet. Not all eight-legged creatures weave tight webs.

Some representatives weave a tiny mesh of cobwebs between your legs, They wait for prey and throw a prepared sticky net over it. And there are representatives who don’t bother with weaving at all. They catch the victim homemade lasso from spider thread with a drop of sticky substance at the end. There are species that work together entwining vast areas with a web.

What is the web used for?

The most common function of the web is catching prey for food. But this is far from its only purpose.

Another web use is:

• to protect the home;
• as home decoration;
• for cocoons in which females lay eggs;
• as a means of transportation.

It is the last point that explains the fact of the autumn invasion of the flying web. This is how young spiders spread throughout the area.

Appearance

In general, female goliath tarantulas tend to be larger than males. The size of their soft body reaches 9 cm, while in males it is no more than 8 cm. The span of the legs of these giant spiders ranges from 25 cm to 28 cm. The largest individuals weigh about 150 grams.

The protective color of tarantulas varies from black to yellow-orange. This usually happens just before shedding. The cephalothorax of these creatures, as well as their abdomen, are covered with short but dense hairs. The paws are covered with long and reddish hairs.

Where does the world's largest spider live?

The favorite places of these creatures are mountainous areas with dense and wet forests. The optimal habitat for these “giants” is wet and swampy areas, mainly located in Venezuelan tropical forests. In addition, goliath tarantulas are widespread in the tropical forests of Guyana, Suriname and Brazil.

Goliath tarantulas inhabit entire burrows up to 1 m deep. From the outside, they weave them with thick webs to prevent strangers from getting inside. It is the females who spend the bulk of their lives in burrows. They go hunting only at night. This is despite their impaired vision.

Hunting

The goliath tarantula is carnivorous spider. Before attacking a potential victim, this creature hides in an impromptu ambush. This is how the spider lies in wait for its “dinner”. As soon as the future prey approaches a distance sufficient for an attack, the tarantula pounces on it, using its fangs.

Contrary to its name, the tarantula does not feed on birds at all. This was apparently an isolated incident. The fact is that this type of spider from the order of arachnids was first noticed precisely when, for some reason, it was eating a bird. Zoologists who have been observing goliaths for a long time have come to the conclusion that the favorite and main food of these creatures are both invertebrates (butterflies, beetles) and vertebrates (mice, small snakes, frogs).

Lifespan

In general, zoologists call adult tarantulas those individuals who have reached the age of three. Average duration The life of a Goliath male is 6 years. The female lives twice as long - up to 14 years. It is curious that the life of males is often cut short after mating with a female.

The fact is that during mating games, goliath tarantulas, like mantises, have a ritual: after mating, the female simply eats her “groom” without his consent. However, not all spider grooms want to put up with this state of affairs. That is why nature awarded them with sharp spines located on the first pair of limbs. They serve as protection from aggressive females.

What does it consist of and where is it formed?

The composition of the web includes the following substances:

• organic compounds- fibroin protein, which makes up the main internal thread, and glycoproteins that form nanofibers located around the main thread. Thanks to fibroin, the web is similar in composition to silk, but much more elastic and stronger;
• inorganic substances- chemical compounds of potassium (hydrogen phosphate and nitrate). Their number is small, but they give the web antiseptic properties and protect it from fungi and bacteria, creating a favorable environment in the spider’s glands for the formation of threads.

In the abdomen of the spider there are arachnoid glands, where a liquid substance is formed that comes out through spinning tubes located on the arachnoid warts. They can be observed at the very bottom of the abdomen.
A viscous liquid comes out of the tube and quickly hardens in air. Using its hind legs, the spider pulls out the thread and uses it for weaving. One spider is capable of producing a thread 0.5 km long.

What are the types?

Spiders, depending on the species, can weave different webs.

The form could be as follows:

How and how long do spiders weave webs?

The spider weaves the most famous circular web for 0.5–3 hours. The duration of weaving depends on the size of the mesh and the weather. In this case, the wind usually becomes the best assistant, carrying the thread released by the spider over considerable distances.

It is in the direction of the wind that the web stretched between the trees is located. A thin thread is carried by the air flow, clings to a nearby tree and perfectly withstands the movements of its creator.

He periodically renews the woven net, as over time it loses its ability to hold prey.

The spider usually eats old webs to provide itself with the building material needed to weave a new product. Automatic actions for building a network are laid down at the genetic level and are inherited.

Properties and Functions

The web has the following properties:

1. Very durable. Thanks to its special structure, its strength is comparable to nylon, and it is several times stronger than steel.


2. Internal articulation. An object suspended on a spider thread can be rotated in one direction for as long as desired without twisting.
3. Very thin. The spider thread is extremely thin compared to the threads of other living creatures. In many families of spiders it is 2–3 microns. For comparison, the thickness of a silkworm thread is in the range of 14–26 microns.
4. Stickiness. The threads themselves are not sticky, they are dotted with drops of sticky liquid. However, to create a web, the spider produces not only a sticky thread, but also a thread devoid of glue particles.

The web is necessary for the life of the spider.
It performs the following functions:

1. Shelter. The woven web serves as a good shelter from bad weather, as well as from enemies in the natural environment.
2. Creation of a favorable microclimate. For example, in water spiders it is filled with air and allows them to stay under water. They also use it to cover the shells in which they live at the bottom.
3. Trap for food items. The spider is carnivorous and its diet consists of insects caught in a sticky web.
4. Material for creating a cocoon from which new spiders emerge.


5. A device that plays a role in the process of reproduction. During mating season females weave a long thread and leave it hanging so that a male passing nearby can easily reach them.
6. Deception of predators. Some orb-weaving spiders use it to glue together debris and make dummies to which they attach a thread. In case of danger, they pull the thread and distract attention from themselves with a moving dummy.
7. Insurance. Before attacking a victim, spiders attach a web thread to some object and jump on the prey, using the thread as insurance.
8. Vehicle. Young spiders leave their “father’s house” with the help of a long thread. Spiders that live in bodies of water use webs as water transport.

How can a person use the web?

In China, the fabric made from spider webs, which is amazingly durable and light, is called “fabric of the eastern sea.” Polynesians use the web threads of large web spiders for sewing, and in addition to this, they also weave nets from them for catching fish.

Scientists from Japan were able to create violin strings from spider silk. Nowadays, scientists are striving to synthesize a material with the properties of spider thread for use in different areas- from the production of body armor to the construction of bridges.

But science is not yet able to create an analogue of the substance that the spider produces. To do this, some researchers are trying to introduce spider genes into other living organisms.

Dutch biologist Abdul Wahab El-Halbzuri and artist Jalil Essaydi research activities synthesized super-strong fabric, which is an organic combination of spider web and human skin.

Previously, the strongest fabric was considered to be Kevlar fibers produced by DuPont, which are 5 times stronger than steel - and the material obtained using spider threads is 15 times stronger than steel. But such a synthetic substance has a number of disadvantages, which scientists are still working on.

The web is notable not only for its strength. The antibacterial properties of such spider products have been used for a long time. Even in ancient times, people used spider webs as bandages.

This sticky material adhered to the skin and created a barrier for bacteria and viruses to enter the wound. Many research institutions are working with spider silk, trying to apply its properties in medicine to create a material that can regenerate limbs.

Scientists in Europe say that within 5 years they will be able to synthesize artificial tendons and ligaments from arachnoid threads.

IN modern world Spider web threads are used in the optical industry to mark crosshairs in optical devices, and also as threads in microsurgery. It is also known that microbiologists have created an air analyzer using the properties of spider threads to capture microparticles from surrounding traces.
It should be noted that studying the properties of the web will make it possible in the future to achieve great results in many industries, as well as contribute to the development and emergence of advanced technologies important for humanity.

Why doesn't a spider stick to its web?

While hunting for its victims (flies, midges and other insects), which become entangled in the sticky nets placed, the spider itself does not stick to its own trap.

Let's consider the factors due to which the spider does not stick to its product:

1. Not all spider webs are covered with an adhesive liquid, but only some areas that are well known to its creator. It is the circular threads that are sticky, and the central ones are not saturated with an adhesive substance.
2. The spider's legs are completely covered with short and thin hairs. These hairs quickly remove droplets of glue invisible to the eye from the threads of the web. When the paw is on a section of the spider web, particles of glue are on the hairs. When the spider removes its leg from an area without glue, the hairs, when sliding on the thread, return the glue particles back.
3. A special substance that coats the spider's legs reduces the level of interaction with the glue, which further helps against sticking.

Video: about the web of spiders So, the web is synthesized in the arachnoid glands located on the abdomen of spiders, and has a predominantly protein composition. These arthropods weave it for different needs, and it comes in various forms. Moreover, it has extraordinary properties that humanity can use for their own purposes. Scientists different countries are trying to synthesize a substance similar to it.

The abdomen of spiders contains numerous arachnoid glands. Their ducts open into tiny spinning tubes, which are located at the ends of six arachnoid warts on the spider's abdomen. The cross spider, for example, has about 500-550 such tubes. The arachnoid glands produce a liquid, viscous secretion consisting of protein. This secret has the ability to instantly harden in air. Therefore, when the protein secretion of the arachnoid glands is secreted through the spinning tubes, it hardens in the form of thin threads.

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1. Cross spider (with an open abdominal cavity)
2. Spider arachnoid warts

The spider begins to spin its web like this: it presses the web warts to the substrate; at the same time, a small portion of the released secretion, solidifies, sticks to it. The spider then continues to pull out the viscous secretion from the web tubes using its hind legs. When it moves away from the attachment site, the rest of the secretion simply stretches into quickly hardening threads.

Spiders use webs for a variety of purposes. In the web shelter, the spider finds a favorable microclimate, where it also takes refuge from enemies and bad weather. Some spiders weave webs around the walls of their burrows. The spider weaves sticky trapping nets from its web to capture prey. Egg cocoons, in which eggs and young spiders develop, are also made from cobwebs. The web is also used by spiders for travel - small Tarzans use it to weave safety threads that protect them from falling when jumping. Depending on the purpose of use, the spider can secrete sticky or dry thread of a certain thickness.

By chemical composition And physical properties the web is close to silk silkworms and caterpillars, only it is much stronger and more elastic: if the breaking load for caterpillar silk is 33-43 kg per 1 mm 2, then for spider web it is from 40 to 261 kg per mm 2 (depending on the type)!

Other arachnids, such as spider mites and pseudoscorpions, can also produce webs. However, it was spiders who achieved true mastery in weaving webs. After all, it is important not only to be able to make a web, but also to produce it in large quantities. In addition, the “loom” should be located in a place where it is more convenient to use. In pseudoscorpions and spider mites raw material base The web is located... in the head, and the weaving apparatus is located on the oral appendages. In conditions of the struggle for existence, animals whose heads are weighed down with brains, and not with cobwebs, gain an advantage. That's what spiders are. The abdomen of a spider is a real web factory, and spinning devices - arachnoid warts - are formed from atrophied abdominal legs on the underside of the abdomen. And the spiders’ limbs are simply “golden” - they spin so deftly that any lacemaker would envy them.

Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences E. Lozovskaya

Science and life // Illustrations

The adhesive substance covering the thread of the catching spiral is evenly distributed throughout the web in the form of bead droplets. The picture shows the place where two fragments of the catcher spiral are attached to the radius.

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

The initial stages of building a catching net by a cross spider.

The logarithmic spiral approximately describes the shape of the auxiliary spiral thread that the spider lays when constructing a wheel-shaped catching net.

The Archimedes spiral describes the shape of the adhesive trapping thread.

Zigzag threads are one of the features of the webs of spiders of the genus Argiope.

The crystalline regions of the silk fiber have a folded structure similar to the one shown in the figure. The individual chains are connected by hydrogen bonds.

Young cross spiders that have just emerged from their web cocoon.

Spiders of the family Dinopidae spinosa weave a web between their legs and then throw it over their prey.

The cross spider (Araneus diadematus) is known for its ability to weave large, wheel-shaped trapping webs.

Some types of spiders also attach a long “ladder” to the round trap, which significantly increases the efficiency of hunting.

Science and life // Illustrations

This is what the spider tubes from which the threads of spider silk emerge look like under a microscope.

Spiders may not be the most attractive creatures, but their creation, the web, is nothing short of awe-inspiring. Remember how the geometric regularity of the finest threads shimmering in the sun, stretched between the branches of a bush or among tall grass, captivates the eye.

Spiders are one of the oldest inhabitants of our planet, having settled on land more than 200 million years ago. There are about 35 thousand species of spiders in nature. These eight-legged creatures, which live everywhere, are recognizable always and everywhere, despite differences in color and size. But the most important thing is distinctive feature- is the ability to produce spider silk, a natural fiber unsurpassed in strength.

Spiders use webs for a variety of purposes. They make cocoons for eggs from it, build shelters for wintering, use it as a “safety rope” when jumping, weave intricate trapping nets and wrap up caught prey. A female ready for mating produces a web thread marked with pheromones, thanks to which the male, moving along the thread, easily finds a partner. Young spiders of some species fly away from the parental nest on long threads carried by the wind.

Spiders feed mainly on insects. The hunting devices they use to get food are of the most different forms and types. Some spiders simply stretch out several signal threads near their shelter and, as soon as an insect touches the thread, they rush at it from ambush. Others throw a thread with a sticky drop at the end forward, like a kind of lasso. But the pinnacle of the design activity of spiders is still round wheel-shaped nets, located horizontally or vertically.

To build a wheel-shaped catching net, the cross spider, a common inhabitant of our forests and gardens, produces a fairly long, strong thread. A breeze or rising air flow lifts the thread upward, and, if the place for building the web is chosen well, it clings to the nearest branch or other support. The spider crawls along it to secure the end, sometimes laying another thread for strength. Then he releases a freely hanging thread and attaches a third to its middle, so that a Y-shaped structure is obtained - the first three radii out of more than fifty. When the radial threads and frame are ready, the spider returns to the center and begins to lay out a temporary auxiliary spiral - something like "scaffolding". The auxiliary spiral holds the structure together and serves as a path for the spider when constructing a catching spiral. The entire main frame of the net, including the radii, is made of non-adhesive thread, but for the catcher spiral, a double thread coated with an adhesive substance is used.

What's surprising is that these two spirals have different geometric shapes. The temporary spiral has relatively few turns, and the distance between them increases with each turn. This happens because, when laying it, the spider moves at the same angle to the radii. The shape of the resulting broken line is close to the so-called logarithmic spiral.

The sticky trapping spiral is built according to a different principle. The spider starts at the edge and moves towards the center, keeping the same distance between the turns, creating an Archimedes spiral. At the same time, it bites off the threads of the auxiliary spiral.

Spider silk is produced by special glands located in the back of the spider's abdomen. At least seven types of arachnoid glands are known, producing different filaments, but none of them known species All seven types of spiders are not found at once. Usually a spider has from one to four pairs of these glands. Weaving a web is not a quick task, and it takes about half an hour to build a medium-sized trapping net. To switch to the production of a different type of web (for the catching spiral), the spider needs a minute's respite. Spiders often reuse webs by eating leftover webs that have been damaged by rain, wind, or insects. The web is digested in their body with the help of special enzymes.

The structure of spider silk has been perfectly developed over hundreds of millions of years of evolution. This natural material combines two wonderful properties - strength and elasticity. A web made of cobwebs can stop an insect flying at full speed. The thread from which spiders weave the base of their hunting web is thinner than a human hair, and its specific (that is, calculated per unit mass) tensile strength is higher than that of steel. If you compare spider thread with steel wire of the same diameter, they will support approximately the same weight. But spider silk is six times lighter, which means six times stronger.

Like human hair, sheep wool, and silk from silkworm cocoons, spider webs are composed primarily of proteins. In terms of amino acid composition, the spider web proteins - spidroins - are relatively close to fibroins, the proteins that make up the silk produced by silkworm caterpillars. Both contain unusually high amounts of the amino acids alanine (25%) and glycine (about 40%). Areas of protein molecules rich in alanine form crystalline regions densely packed into folds, providing high strength, and those areas where there is more glycine represent a more amorphous material that can stretch well and thereby impart elasticity to the thread.

How is such a thread formed? There is no complete and clear answer to this question yet. The process of web spinning has been studied in most detail using the example of the ampullaid gland of the orb-weaving spider Nephila clavipes. The ampullaid gland, which produces the strongest silk, consists of three main sections: a central sac, a very long curved canal, and a tube with an outlet. From the cells on the inner surface of the sac emerge small spherical droplets containing two types of spidroin protein molecules. This viscous solution flows into the tail of the sac, where other cells secrete a different type of protein - glycoproteins. Thanks to glycoproteins, the resulting fiber acquires a liquid crystalline structure. Liquid crystals are remarkable in that, on the one hand, they have a high degree of order, and on the other, they retain fluidity. As the thick mass moves towards the outlet, the long protein molecules are oriented and aligned parallel to each other in the direction of the axis of the forming fiber. In this case, intermolecular hydrogen bonds are formed between them.

Humanity has copied many of nature's design discoveries, but such a complex process as spinning a web has not yet been reproduced. Scientists are now trying to solve this difficult problem using biotechnological techniques. The first step was to isolate the genes responsible for the production of the proteins that make up the web. These genes were introduced into the cells of bacteria and yeast (see "Science and Life" No. 2, 2001). Canadian geneticists have gone even further - they have bred genetically modified goats whose milk contains dissolved spider web proteins. But the problem is not only in obtaining the spider silk protein, it is necessary to model natural process spinning. But scientists have yet to learn this lesson from nature.

Surely each of you paid attention to the sophisticated, delicate, silky “handkerchiefs” that spiders hang on trees and grass sunny summer. When silvery dewdrops glisten on openwork spider yarn - the sight, you see, is incredibly beautiful and bewitching. But several questions arise: “where is the web formed and how is it used by the spider”, “where does it come from and what does it consist of”. Today we will try to figure out why this animal decorates everything around with its “embroidery.”

Stopped for an hour

Many scientists devoted not only entire treatises and hours, but also years of their lives to spiders and their webs. As Andre Tilkin, a famous philosopher from France, said, weaving a web is an amazing performance that you can watch for hours and hours. He wrote more than five hundred pages of a treatise on the web.

The German scientist G. Peters argued that, watching spiders for hours, you don’t even notice how time flies. Even before Tilkin, he told the world about who these amazing creatures are, how a spider weaves its web, why it needs it.

Surely, more than once, when you saw a little spider on a leaf doing its painstaking work, you stopped and watched. But we always don’t have enough time for beautiful little things, we’re always in a hurry, so we can’t stop, linger a little longer. If this was the time, each of us could probably answer the question: “How does a web appear, why does the spider not stick to its web?”

Let's stop for a moment and figure it out. After all, the question is really interesting, and the process is fascinating.

Where does it come from?

Spiders are the oldest creatures, living on earth for more than two hundred million years. Without their web, they, perhaps, would not be so interesting to humanity. So where do spiders’ webs come from and what does it look like?

The web is the contents of special glands that many arthropods have (false scorpions, spiders, spider mites, etc.). The liquid contents can be stretched without tearing. The resulting thin threads harden very quickly in air.

Each spider has several specific glands on its body that are responsible for producing webs. Different glands form various types and density of the web. They are located on the abdomen in the form of very thin ducts and are called “spider warts”. It is from these holes that a liquid secretion is released, which soon turns into a beautiful web.

With the help of its paws, the spider distributes and “hangs” the web where it needs it. The spider's front legs are the longest; they protrude into leading role. And with the help of its hind legs, it grabs drops of liquid and stretches them to the required length.

Wind to the rescue

The breeze also contributes to the correct distribution of the web. If the spider chooses the right place to place itself, for example between trees or in leaves, then the wind helps to carry the threads where they need to be. If you wanted to answer the question for yourself about how a spider weaves a web between trees, then here is the answer. The wind helps him.

When one thread catches on the desired branch, the spider crawls, checks the strength of the base and releases the next one. The second is attached to the middle of the first and so on.

Construction stages

The base of the web is very similar to a snowflake or a point, from the center of which several rays radiate. These central threads-rays are the densest and thickest in their structure. Sometimes the spider makes a warp from several threads at once, as if strengthening its paths in advance.

When the base is ready, the animal proceeds to the construction of “catching spirals”. They are made from a completely different type of web. This liquid is sticky and sticks well. It is from the sticky web that the circles on the base are built.

The spider begins its construction from the outer circle, gradually moving towards the center. He amazingly senses the distance between the circles. Having absolutely no compass or special measuring instruments at hand, the spider accurately distributes the web so that there is an exclusively equal distance between the circles.

Why doesn't it stick on its own?

Surely you all know how spiders hunt. How their prey gets caught in a sticky web and dies. And, perhaps, everyone has at least once wondered: “Why doesn’t the spider stick to its web?”

The answer lies in the specific tactics of building a web, which we described just above. The web is made from several types of threads. The base on which the spider moves is made of ordinary, very strong and completely safe thread. But “catching” circles are made, on the contrary, from thread that is sticky and lethal to many insects.

Functions of the web

So, we figured out how the web appears and where it is formed. And now we can also answer how the spider’s web is used. The primary task of the web is, of course, to obtain food. When “food” enters the web, the spider immediately feels the vibration. He approaches the prey, quickly wraps it in a strong “blanket”, opens the edge and takes the food to a place where no one will bother him to enjoy his meal.

But besides getting food, the web serves the spider for some other purposes. It is used to make a cocoon for eggs and a house for living. The web acts as a kind of hammock on which events take place. mating games and mating. It acts as a parachute, which allows you to quickly escape from dangerous enemies. With its help, spiders can move through trees if necessary.

Stronger than steel

So, we already know how a spider weaves a web and what its features are, how it is formed and how sticky networks are built to obtain food. But the question remains about why the web is so strong.

Despite the fact that all spider designs are varied, they have the same property - increased strength. This is ensured due to the fact that the web contains a protein - keratin. By the way, it is also found in animal claws, wool, and bird feathers. The fibers of the web stretch perfectly and then return to their original form, without tearing.

Scientists say that the strength of a spider's web is much greater than natural silk. The latter has a tensile strength of 30-42 g/mm 2, but spider web has a tensile strength of about 170 g/mm 2. You can feel the difference.

How a spider weaves a web is understandable. That it is durable is also a question that has been resolved. But did you know that despite such strength, the web is several thousand times thinner than human hair? If we compare the breaking performance of cobwebs and other threads, it surpasses not only silk, but also viscose, nylon, and orlon. Even the strongest steel cannot compare with it in strength.

Did you know that the way a spider weaves its web will determine the number of victims that end up in it?

When prey is caught in the web, it not only sticks to the “catching” net, but is also struck by an electrical charge. It is formed from the insects themselves, which accumulate a charge during the flight, and when they get into the web, they give it to the threads and infect themselves.

Knowing how a spider weaves a web and what “strong” qualities it has, why don’t people still make clothes from such threads? It turns out that during the time of Louis XIV, one of the craftsmen tried to sew gloves and socks for the king from spider threads. However, this work turned out to be very difficult, painstaking and lengthy.

IN South America spider webs help not only the manufacturers themselves, but also the local monkeys. Thanks to the strength of the nets, animals move through them deftly and fearlessly.

Most people don't like spiders. They look rather unpleasant, and prejudices take their toll. At the same time, not only children, but also adults develop a keen interest in how the spider weaves its web. Why he does this is clear to everyone. But how remains a mystery. Let's try to open it up.

You won’t believe it, but not all spiders are capable of creating such elegant lace, but only those that use it to catch small insects that serve as food for them. These representatives of the spider family are called tenet. These also include poisonous individuals, such as karakut and black widow. The same spiders that actively hunt can also weave webs, but they use them purely for other purposes.

In humans, lace woven by spiders often evokes a feeling of envy, they are so skillfully woven. The threads from which they are made are incredibly durable. The web never breaks from its own weight. This can only happen if the length of the thread is more than fifty meters. As you can see, the safety margin of the webs is very high. If you pay attention to their subtlety, then this fact can really be envied. If you take a separate web and try to stretch it, it will break only after it has increased four times in length.

The threads woven by the spider have another exceptional property. They are transparent and practically invisible. Depending on the conditions of use, the spider can weave three types of web: strong, household, sticky. Strong web is used to create the frame of fishing nets. The jumpers in the frame are made of sticky threads. The spider uses a household web to close the entrance to its burrow or entangle cocoons with larvae. Some types of spiders can weave webs that reflect ultraviolet rays. It is used to attract butterflies.

Do all spiders spin patterned webs?

As it turns out, not all. Only araneomorphic arthropods are capable of creating real masterpieces.

Now let's return to the question of why a spider needs a web. It is clear that the answer suggests itself - of course, for hunting. However, these are not all its functions. The web can be used for the following purposes: to camouflage and insulate the entrance to a burrow, for cocoons, for protection. Paradoxically, a skillfully created web protects the spider's hole from rain. Spiders move along the web, and their offspring leave the nest along it.

And yet, what is the basis of the web?

The spider has six glands that are located on its abdomen. With their help, he produces a secretion called liquid silk. When it comes out, it begins to harden. Incredibly thin threads emerge from the glands, which the spider twists together with its legs. The result is a cobweb. This is how he weaves his lace.

If it is a fishing net, then he stretches it between the branches of a tree. Having secured one side of the thread, he stops spinning and waits for the wind to blow, which should carry the second side of the web to the second branch. After this, the next stage of weaving begins, which is similar to the first. This continues until the frame of the future network is woven. After this, a sticky web is woven into it. The spider eats all unused remains of the web.

Almost all spiders are predators and use their webs to catch insects. Shadow spiders catch flying insects. Those who live in earthen burrows are content with beetles, worms and snails. Water spiders catch small fish, crustaceans, insects. The tarantula spider does not disdain frogs, lizards, birds, and small rodents. However, there are also those who eat their own kind.