Spider Webs

Spider webs are threads of silk. Spiders can make as many as seven different kinds of silk, with all different purposes—from making egg cases, to hiding. They are mainly used to catch prey.Spider webs are threads of silk. Spiders can make as many as seven different kinds of silk, with all different purposes—from making egg cases, to hiding. They are mainly used to catch prey.

 

The silk is made inside the glands of a spider’s abdomen, where it is liquid. When it’s drawn out of their spinnerets, it becomes thread-like.

 

Spider silk is very strong—sturdier than a thread of steel that is as equally thick.

 

Webs are spun by female and immature spiders.

 

Argiope spiders form orb webs made of ultraviolet silk. Some flowers (their food source) are also ultraviolet, confusing insects, which believe they’re about to eat nectar. Instead, they end up getting stuck in a web.

 

The slightest vibration of a web alerts a spider to the possibility of prey, which then rushes toward the movement.

 

Spiders can spin webs almost anywhere. Here a small spider web spans a square of a chain link fence.

 

A spider waits in its tunnel-shaped web.