4.

Weaving its web

Different spiders build up their webs in different ways. The pattern & the structure of the web vary among various species of spider. We can take the example of Araneidae which is a large family of spiders. All species in this family, if they make webs, they make vertical or horizontal orb webs. Some species construct some sort of stabilizer in the center of the web. Some members in this family do not make web at all. Following is the list of various orb web spiders: Garden orb weaver spider (Figure 6) Scorpion-tailed Spider (Figure 7) Russian Tent Spider (Figure 8) Banded Orb-weaving spider (Figure 9) Tree-Stump Spider (Figure 10) Pan spider (Figure 11) The way spider builds up their webs is extremely economical. The spider recycles silk after use by eating it, so very little is wasted. This way the spider regains its lost energy in form of web by consuming the proteins present in the web. The weight of silk in the spiders web is less than thousandth part of weight of spiders body. This net-technology raises some problems for the spider. The spider has to make sure that the prey sticks to the web after hurtling the web & do not tear off the web. This problem can be so lved by making the silk very elastic but at the sa me time taking care of the fact that the prey does not get recoiled back. The web threads are capable of stretching out to ten times their resting length & they also recoil slowly enough not to bounce the prey out of the web. The next feature that the silk needs, in order to keep the prey from escaping, is stickiness. The substance that coats the silk in the reeling

operation is watery as well as sticky. Spiders negotiate in a unique way from sticking on to its own web. The legs spiders are anointed with special oil which provides some protection from the stickiness of the web. Also spider while building up her web leaves some of the thre ads i.e. the main spokes that radiate out from the centre of the web, non-sticky & she runs about on these main spokes only, using the specially modified feet (figure 4) ending in little claws to grip the fin