Learn Few Facts About Spider Silk For Maximum Benefits
If you consider the type of robustness and flexibility provided by the silk perhaps no other type of silk is comparable with it. That is why it even compared to the toughest materials like steel and strongest man-made polymer like Kevlar. The weight of this silk is stronger than steel and is considered as five times strong than steel of similar diameter. Apart from all these things the threads of this silk are fine in length than hair of humans. That is approximately some microns in diameter but the strength is more. Silk that is produced by Neophilia clavicles spider is the toughest one and is known as drag line silk. Golden Orb-Weaving spider silk. They are so called due to the fact that they make orb webs with a silk that has golden hue. Another quality of this silk is that it is very elastic in nature and is capture silk used for capturing prey by the spiders. Due to this reason, it doesn’t break even if you stretch it to double times its actual length. It is not only tough but also more elastic and water-resistant than silk of silkworm. So this makes it quite suitable for usage in lots of applications. There are few types in spider silk and spiders use them for various functions.
For instance to wrap and capture the prey the spiders use swathing silk. Sticky silk or capture silk is used for catching the prey and it elastic property helps the spider to keep the prey in a position. The strongest silk is produced for drag lines that are used by spiders to connect to their web. They provide safety to the spider from falling out of web. This type of silk also known as drag line silk is toughest of all as it supports the spider’s weight. Silk is also used by spiders for ballooning that is used for finding new sources for food. With the help of this silk the spiders can move up in the air. They also use the silk for various other reasons such as for egg sac and to weave webs. All these types of silks are produced by spiders in various silk glands. There are generally seven such silk glands used by
spider silk. But all these glands are not present in single spider. In female spiders you can find four glands and in males it is only three. Females have additional one gland for creating egg sac silk. Otherwise any spider has glands for creating swathing silk, attachment and dragline. Depending on the need, each of these glands make silk in appropriate manner. However it is important to know that not all spiders can weave webs. Another fact about spiders is they don’t stick to their own web as the entire web is not sticky. Moreover the webs lost the stickiness after a day or more due to moisture and dust in air.