How Do Spiders Spin Webs? A Full Explanation of the Web-Building Process
Spiders are the collective name for all species in the order Araneae, class Arachnida, phylum Arthropoda. All spiders have silk glands, and silk serves many purposes in a spider's life. Catching insects in a web is one of the functions of spider silk. Hunting spiders have no fixed dwelling and roam about hunting, and do not spin webs. Only sedentary spiders spin webs. Let's take a look below at how spiders build webs and the types of webs they make!
Why Spiders Build Webs
The most important characteristic of web-building spiders is their web-spinning behavior. Spiders secrete a sticky fluid through the projections at the tips of their silk glands, and this fluid coagulates into very fine silk upon contact with air. The web made of silk is highly sticky and is the spider's main means of catching prey. For insects stuck on the web, the spider first injects the prey with a special liquid - digestive enzymes. These digestive enzymes can cause the insect to become unconscious, convulse, and eventually die, and cause its body to liquefy. After liquefaction, the spider feeds by sucking. Spiders are oviparous, and most male spiders are devoured by the female after mating, becoming food for the mother spider. Wandering spiders do not spin webs; instead, they roam about or camouflage themselves in place to catch prey, such as the huntsman spider, known in Taiwan, China colloquially as the "la ya".
How Spiders Build Webs
From a tree, at its foothold, the spider draws out many long threads long enough to reach the opposite side, and these threads then drift with the wind, like several transparent ribbons floating in the air, while it constantly touches its feet to the anchor point of the silk. If one thread can no longer be pulled, then that thread has already caught on the tree on the opposite side, and the "sky cable" is in place. Like the ridge beam of a house, on this line that will serve as the support line of the spider web, it goes back and forth sticking a few more threads to turn it into a thick "cable." Then, below this thick "cable," it sets up a second "cable" in parallel. The spider crawls back and forth, and the web is set up on these two "cables."
Types of Spider Webs
1. Sheet web: The most common is the sheet web of the funnel spider, which includes 1 tubular retreat, from which extends a dense water
2. Flat web: The role of the web sheet is no longer limited to transmitting information about the prey's proximity; it can also slow the prey's movement, giving the spider more ample time to capture it. Many funnel spiders tangle many irregular threads above the web sheet, which allows them to better transmit vibrations and intercept insects.
3. Orb web: Orb webs are found in the family Uloboridae and the family Araneidae and some closely related families. Orb-weaver spiders build typical orb webs. Sheet-web weavers build horizontal orb webs and add more threads.
4. Others: The web of the feather-legged spider is triangular, equivalent to only one sector of an orb web. The web of the long feather-legged spider is even simpler, with the entire web composed of only 1 or a few sticky threads. The ogre-faced spider builds a small rectangular web; it does not passively wait for insects to hit the web, but instead uses its two pairs of front legs to hold the web and actively catch insects like a dip net. Another example is the bolas spider, which uses only 1 thread, with a sticky ball of volatile substance at the end of the thread; this substance resembles a sex pheromone, and the spider manipulates this thread with its front legs like tossing an embroidered ball or a meteor, flinging the sticky ball at the end of the thread toward its prey.