(December 17, 2012 at 7:06 am)pocaracas Wrote: What I always wonder is: how do they get the first strands up? They're not like spider man who can shoot webs across buildings, are they?
Found the following answer on Yahoo:
"Most spiders spin a thread as they move around called a dragline. Draglines keep Mr. Spidy from falling. It also enables him to jump, drop or swing safely. A net of sticky threads, thinner than a hair, but very strong, takes Mr. Spidy about an hour to spin his web. They start their web by sending out a thread that floats in the air until it sticks to a branch or leaf. Then more thread that sticks to other branches and also goes from the center to the sides. They keep spinning around and around in circles. Soon after, The flat round web is finished."
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/ind...208AAnHaZQ
Another website on this with a short animation as well.
Spider silks have some amazing properties; They are very strong, tough, and yet elastic. They are stronger than steel (weight-for-weight), stretchy, sticky (and sometimes non-sticky as well), durable, and they are even better conductors of heat than most materials, which scientists recently discovered. Here's an article below on their thermal conductivity:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/201...132613.htm
