Learning and Understanding Spiders and Spiderweb

Yorubas have this belief that if you work through a spider web, then you are likely to have bad luck but this isn't true, at least it has not been proven scientifically but even at that, there is a high chance that there is a spider close to where you are which means that you might be close to spider web. This spider silk is amazing, and spiders do an amazing job making it.

I spider silk thread is often nearly invisible, which is why we always walk through it and not because we have some village people that are after our lives like the Yorubas think. Although invisible, when it comes to strength, some spider fibers are usually compared with steel and Kevlar.

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Very few spiders are actually harmful to humans, so if you are scared of spider then you should relax because very few spiders are harmful but almost all spiders are helpful to humans in so many ways. There are over 46,000 known species of spiders and the majority of these spiders can make from 4 to 8 types of silk. For example spiders like the Golden Orb-Weaver (Nephila Clavipes) can make up to seven different types of silk.

These silk includes the dragline (Major ampullate) silk which the spider drags behind itself, The Minor ampullate silk which is used to guide the weaving of the web silk, the Flagelliform silk which is used to trap prey, and this silk is made up of two silks one being the stretchy silk and the other being a sticky glue-like silk which is usually on the top, the Pyriform silk is a cement-like silk used to attach the silk to whatever substance it is hanging on, The Achiniform silk which is used to wrap prey, and the Tubiliform silk which serves as the egg sac used to wrap their eggs.

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The spider silk is made of protein basically Spidroins which means Spider fibroins that are unique to spiders. The silk glands inside the spider are made up of liquid protein. A protein chain has a raw ingredient of 20 amino acids which are coded in genes and each glands have these protein built of different amino acids which gives them their speciality. Talking about specialization, different spiders are able to use their silk for different purposes like the trapdoor spider which weaves a camouflaged shelter using its silk, the redback spider uses its silk to weave a trap for its prey, The ogre spider which shoots its silk like the comic spiderman, some spiders have silks that are laced with venom for their prey, and unlike spiderman that throws its web to places to move, some spiders ride the wind on silk sail, in what is known as ballooning.

Mechanically, weight for weight, nothing humans have invented has been able to beat the strength,he ability to stretch, and absorb energy like a strand of some spider silk. If we are able to learn about spider silk very well, it will be able to help us improve on a lot of things including adhesives, and fabrics.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2658765/
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemistry/articles/10.3389/fchem.2020.00554/full
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-structure-
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/facts/spiders
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369702111700578