scholarly journals Capture silk scaffold production in the cribellar web spider

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Sun ◽  
Seung-Min Lee ◽  
Bon-Jin Ku ◽  
Eun-Ah Park ◽  
Myung-Jin Moon
Keyword(s):  
Prey Capture ◽  
Functional Organization ◽  
Flexible Structure ◽  
Spider Web ◽  
Web Spider ◽  
Synthetic Materials ◽  
Silk Scaffold

AbstractSpider capture silk is a natural scaffolding material that outperforms most synthetic materials in terms of its combination of strength and elasticity. Among the various kinds of silk threads, cribellar thread is the most primitive prey-capturing type of spider web material. We analyzed the functional organization of the sieve-like cribellum spigots and specialized calamistral comb bristles for capture thread production by the titanoecid spider Nurscia albofasciata. The outer cribellar surface is covered with thousands of tiny spigots, and the cribellar plate produces non-sticky threads composed of thousands of fine nanofibers. N. albofasciata cribellar spigots are typically about 10 μm long, and each spigot appears as a long individual shaft with a pagoda-like tiered tip. The five distinct segments comprising each spigot is a defining characteristic of this spider. This segmented and flexible structure not only allows for spigots to bend individually and join with adjacent spigots, but it also enables spigots to draw the silk fibrils from their cribella with rows of calamistral leg bristles to form cribellar prey-capture threads.

scholarly journals Capture Silk Scaffold Production in the Cribellar Web Spider

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan SUN ◽  
Seung-Min LEE ◽  
Bon-Jin KU ◽  
Eun-Ah PARK ◽  
Myung-Jin Moon
Keyword(s):  
Prey Capture ◽  
Functional Organization ◽  
Average Length ◽  
Flexible Structure ◽  
Scaffold Material ◽  
Synthetic Material ◽  
Spider Webs ◽  
Primitive Type ◽  
Web Spider ◽  
Silk Scaffold

Abstract Spider capture silk is a kind of natural scaffold material that outperforms almost any synthetic material in its combination of strength and elasticity. Among the various kinds of silk threads, the cribellar thread is the most primitive type of prey-capturing thread found in spider webs. We analyze the functional organization of the sieve-like cribellum spigots and a specialized comb bristles of calamistrum for capture thread production in the titanoecid spider Nurscia albofasciata. It's outer surface of the cribellum is covered with thousands of tiny spigots, and this cribellum plate produces the non-sticky threads which composed of thousands of finest nanofibers. Average length of the cribellum spigot in N. albofasciata is 10 µm, and each cribellate spigot appeared as singular, long shafts with pagoda-like tiered tips. Each spigot has five distinct segments as a definitive characteristic of this spider. This segmented and flexible structure not only allows it to bend by itself and join together with adjacent spigots, but also enable to draw the silk fibrils from its cribellum with a row of leg bristles of calamistrum to form a cribellar prey capture thread.

scholarly journals High-performance spider webs: integrating biomechanics, ecology and behaviour

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (57) ◽  
pp. 457-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron M. T. Harmer ◽  
Todd A. Blackledge ◽  
Joshua S. Madin ◽  
Marie E. Herberstein
Keyword(s):  
High Performance ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Spider Webs ◽  
Spider Dragline Silk ◽  
Spider Web ◽  
Web Spider ◽  
Species Invasions ◽  
Synthetic Materials ◽  
Orb Web ◽  
Spider Silks

Spider silks exhibit remarkable properties, surpassing most natural and synthetic materials in both strength and toughness. Orb-web spider dragline silk is the focus of intense research by material scientists attempting to mimic these naturally produced fibres. However, biomechanical research on spider silks is often removed from the context of web ecology and spider foraging behaviour. Similarly, evolutionary and ecological research on spiders rarely considers the significance of silk properties. Here, we highlight the critical need to integrate biomechanical and ecological perspectives on spider silks to generate a better understanding of (i) how silk biomechanics and web architectures interacted to influence spider web evolution along different structural pathways, and (ii) how silks function in an ecological context, which may identify novel silk applications. An integrative, mechanistic approach to understanding silk and web function, as well as the selective pressures driving their evolution, will help uncover the potential impacts of environmental change and species invasions (of both spiders and prey) on spider success. Integrating these fields will also allow us to take advantage of the remarkable properties of spider silks, expanding the range of possible silk applications from single threads to two- and three-dimensional thread networks.

scholarly journals Caught in the web: Spider web architecture affects prey specialization and spider-prey stoichiometric relationships

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (13) ◽  
pp. 6449-6462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorraine Ludwig ◽  
Matthew A. Barbour ◽  
Jennifer Guevara ◽  
Leticia Avilés ◽  
Angélica L. González
Keyword(s):  
Spider Web ◽  
Web Spider ◽  
Web Architecture ◽  
Prey Specialization ◽  
The Web

Cooperative prey capture by an orb-web spider

1988 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 208-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. G. Fowler ◽  
N. Gobbi
Keyword(s):  
Prey Capture ◽  
Web Spider ◽  
Cooperative Prey Capture ◽  
Orb Web

scholarly journals The role of capture spiral silk properties in the diversification of orb webs

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (77) ◽  
pp. 3240-3248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Tarakanova ◽  
Markus J. Buehler
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Prey Capture ◽  
Coarse Grained ◽  
Driving Factor ◽  
Web Performance ◽  
Spider Web ◽  
Orb Web ◽  
System Energy ◽  
Thread Strength

Among a myriad of spider web geometries, the orb web presents a fascinating, exquisite example in architecture and evolution. Orb webs can be divided into two categories according to the capture silk used in construction: cribellate orb webs (composed of pseudoflagelliform silk) coated with dry cribellate threads and ecribellate orb webs (composed of flagelliform silk fibres) coated by adhesive glue droplets. Cribellate capture silk is generally stronger but less-extensible than viscid capture silk, and a body of phylogenic evidence suggests that cribellate capture silk is more closely related to the ancestral form of capture spiral silk. Here, we use a coarse-grained web model to investigate how the mechanical properties of spiral capture silk affect the behaviour of the whole web, illustrating that more elastic capture spiral silk yields a decrease in web system energy absorption, suggesting that the function of the capture spiral shifted from prey capture to other structural roles. Additionally, we observe that in webs with more extensible capture silk, the effect of thread strength on web performance is reduced, indicating that thread elasticity is a dominant driving factor in web diversification.

scholarly journals Prey capture by the purse-web spider Calommata signata (Araneae: Atypidae)

2016 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-31
Author(s):  
Takao Kuwada-Kusunose ◽  
Takeshi Sakai ◽  
Tomoyasu Ebihara ◽  
Kunihiro Suzuki
Keyword(s):  
Prey Capture ◽  
Web Spider

scholarly journals Argiope bruennichi (Scopoli, 1772) Örümceğinin Ağ Yapısı ve Örü Aygıtının Morfolojisi

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 577-583
Author(s):  
İlkay Çorak Öcal ◽  
Nazife Yiğit Kayhan ◽  
Ümmügülsüm Hanife Aktaş
Keyword(s):  
Structural Organization ◽  
Spider Silk ◽  
Spider Species ◽  
Spider Web ◽  
Web Spider ◽  
Web Structure ◽  
The World ◽  
Terrestrial Life ◽  
The Web ◽  
Scanning Electron

Spiders are one of the groups that best adapted to terrestrial life among in invertebrates and are represented by approximately 48,000 species in the world. Although all spiders do not weave webs, the webs of spiders are literally a work of art. The main reason for spider web weaving is hunting. Some spider species live in the nature dependent on the own web, while others continue to live without being dependent on the own web. Although basic taxonomic features generally remain unchanged, some spider-silk weaving apparatus may undergo adaptive variations. In this study, the web structure of the weaving web spider, Argiope bruennichi (Scopoli, 1772) and the structural organization of the web weaving apparatus was observed by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The web structure of A. bruennichi, spinnerets especially posterior spinneret and arrangement of its spigots are shown and discussed in the light of the literature.

scholarly journals External power amplification drives prey capture in a spider web

2019 ◽  
pp. 201821419 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. I. Han ◽  
H. C. Astley ◽  
D. D. Maksuta ◽  
T. A. Blackledge
Keyword(s):  
Muscle Power ◽  
Prey Capture ◽  
Muscular Contraction ◽  
Anatomical Structures ◽  
Spider Web ◽  
Physiological Limits ◽  
Power Amplification ◽  
External Power ◽  
Multiple Cycles ◽  
The Web

Power amplification allows animals to produce movements that exceed the physiological limits of muscle power and speed, such as the mantis shrimp’s ultrafast predatory strike and the flea’s jump. However, all known examples of nonhuman, muscle-driven power amplification involve anatomical structures that store energy from a single cycle of muscular contraction. Here, we describe a nonhuman example of external power amplification using a constructed device: the web of the triangle-weaver spider, Hyptiotes cavatus, which uses energy stored in the silk threads to actively tangle prey from afar. Hyptiotes stretches its web by tightening a separate anchor line over multiple cycles of limb motion, and then releases its hold on the anchor line when insects strike the web. Both spider and web spring forward 2 to 3 cm with a peak acceleration of up to 772.85 m/s2 so that up to four additional adhesive capture threads contact the prey while jerking caused by the spider’s sudden stop subsequently wraps silk around the prey from all directions. Using webs as external “tools” to store energy offers substantial mechanical advantages over internal tissue-based power amplification due to the ability of Hyptiotes to load the web over multiple cycles of muscular contraction and thus release more stored energy during prey capture than would be possible with muscle-driven anatomical elastic-energy systems. Elastic power amplification is an underappreciated component of silk’s function in webs and shows remarkable convergence to the fundamental mechanical advantages that led humans to engineer power-amplifying devices such as catapults and ballistae.

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