My Science School

Although webs are the most well-known use for spider silk, not all spiders make webs to catch their prey. In fact, less than half of the 37 spider families in Britain do.

However, even spiders that don't make webs have uses for silk, including creating moulting platforms, sperm webs for males, and retreats.

Jan adds, 'Jumping spiders, for example, make little silken cells in which to hide in during the day - a bit like a sleeping bag.'

Most spiders use silk to wrap their eggs. Ballooning is another spectacular use for silk, allowing the mass dispersal of spiderlings and small adults.

Spiders that don’t build webs catch their prey by other means,  such as ambushing it from a hole in the ground (like trapdoors spiders), or stalking it and leaping on it (like jumping spiders). Those that don’t construct webs still use silk, but for other purposes. These include building retreats, safety drag-lines (constantly connected as the spider moves around) and for dispersal in a process called ballooning. One of the most common uses of silk in the spider world is in the construction of egg sacs that are used to protect their eggs.  

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Did you know spiderwebs were used as bandages to treat injuries in ancient times? Spiderwebs are made of spider silk. They were believed to have antiseptic and anti-fungal properties. They helped prevent infection and were said to promote clotting of blood. Now research in spider silk is going on all over the world to explore its relevance to areas of medicine and industry.

If you are in midst of a forest, and get cut by a machete and there’s profuse bleeding, what do you do? You find a cobweb. Funny as it may sound, putting a bunch of cobweb on your wound will make the blood coagulate much faster. Thanks to those thousands of strands of nanowires which act as nucleation lines.

Besides that, since the cobwebs are proteins basically, they are good places for fungi and bacteria to grow. So, the spider knows that and has evolved to keep these bacterial and fungi growths away from its web. Cobwebs are in fact antiseptic and antifungal too. As long as the web is clean, it will not cause any kind of infection if you put it on an open wound.

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It belongs to a group, which consists of 700 species of hairy spiders. Unlike most spiders, it does not spin webs to catch prey, rather use silk to secure the entrance to its burrow. It typically lives in the ground.

It is a night-time hunter. It uses its legs to catch prey, which includes insects. Some of the bigger tarantula species enjoy frogs, toads and mice.

After catching a prey, it injects paralyzing venom into it. It secretes digestive enzymes to liquefy its body and drink it using its straw-like mouth openings.

It defends itself by throwing needle-like, barbed hairs at its attackers.

One of the most distinctive traits of many tarantulas is the presence of bristly hairs on their bodies, including their legs. Although this looks like hair and is commonly described as such, spiders and other arthropods do not have true hair like mammals do. Mammalian hair is mainly made of keratin, while arthropod setae consists largely of chitin.

Tarantulas are long-lived spiders, although their life spans vary by sex as well as species. Male tarantulas may live for as long as 10 years, but once they successfully mate, they usually die within a few months. Female tarantulas, on the other hand, have been known to live for 30 years.

Picture Credit : Google