• Question: How do spiders all know how to make a web?

    Asked by 534bera34 to Shikha on 17 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Shikha Sharma

      Shikha Sharma answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      Hi 534bera34,
      Making a web is instinctive for spiders it is like no one teaches birds to make their nest. The web silk is produced in silk glands with the help of the spinnerets(special organs which help spider to choose what kind of thread it wants for the web). Generally, the threads originate as liquid, but they dry fast in the air. The key reason spiders spin webs is to catch their dinner. When it catches an insect in the adhesive strands of its web, it comes near the stuck insect and uses its fangs to inject venom. The venom of spider either kills or paralyzes the prey, permitting the spider to relish its dinner in peace.

Comments

  • Photo: Kevin

    Kevin commented on :

    Spiders have a mechanism that tells them which way is up as they’ve been carried on missions to the ISS and have made some pretty deranged looking webs in zeroG. Like many things in nature something that looks incredibly complicated and intricate can be due to very simple processes. Snowflakes look incrdible but are very simple. Flocks of birds flying huge formations simple follow 2 rules (just like the Red Arrows) 1) follow the leader 2) maintain a set distance from the birds around me. Formulas for fractal images can be really simple but when you run the computer programme it can construct images that look staggeringly complex. So just because something looks wonderfully complicated it does not mean it is complex to achieve. Spider webs, snow flakes, fractal images, flocks of birds, the red arrows displays all follow very simple rules that she adhered to yield some very complex looking and pretty things !