Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb here. Greek mythology tells of
Speaker 1: a mortal seamstress named Arachne. Her extraordinary talent was matched
Speaker 1: only by her ego, and in a moment of pure hubris,
Speaker 1: she challenged the goddess Athena to a high stakes weaving contest,
Speaker 1: and suffice it to say that this didn't go well
Speaker 1: for Arachne. After the showdown, she was transformed into a spider.
Speaker 1: At least she got to keep her hobby. Many spiders
Speaker 1: are famously good weavers, using materials that can be stronger
Speaker 1: than steel. The eight legged critters spin all kinds of
Speaker 1: different webs, some big, some small. If you look at
Speaker 1: the tip of the abdomen on any given spider, you'll
Speaker 1: find one to four pair of tiny stubb like appendages.
Speaker 1: Those are the spin a rets, the organs that dispense silk.
Speaker 1: Each one is connected to special gland is located inside
Speaker 1: the abdomen. Said glands create protein rich liquids that are
Speaker 1: squeezed out of spigots, which are microscopic openings in the spinnerets.
Speaker 1: Upon exiting the body, the liquids solidify and become silk.
Speaker 1: Mind you, not all spider silks are created equal. The
Speaker 1: chemical composition of silk dreads is highly variable, and sometimes
Speaker 1: it can be altered before the pre silk liquids get
Speaker 1: a chance to harden. A plus, by tensing or relaxing,
Speaker 1: spigots can change the thickness of the silken fibers that
Speaker 1: they release. Alone, spider may have dozens, hundreds, or thousands
Speaker 1: of spigots all working together in concert, producing silks with
Speaker 1: lots of different consistencies. One of the better known families
Speaker 1: of spiders are the orb weavers, encountered on every continent
Speaker 1: but Antarctica. Their ranks include around three thousand, five hundred
Speaker 1: species worldwide. Individual or weavers can generate eight to nine
Speaker 1: different types of silk to protect their eggs. For example,
Speaker 1: the arachnids bundle them up in woven sacks with a
Speaker 1: layer of nice, soft silk at the center, but spider
Speaker 1: silk also comes in firmer, tougher varieties. Or weavers create
Speaker 1: dartboard style, vertically oriented webs that most people think of
Speaker 1: when they hear the term spider web. Think about Charlotte's
Speaker 1: web before she added missives like some pig. We're talking
Speaker 1: about the spiral little beauties you've probably seen in countless
Speaker 1: backyard gardens. Construction begins after an or weaver makes its
Speaker 1: bridge thread. This is the first line in a new web,
Speaker 1: usually a lightweight strand that the spider uses to forward
Speaker 1: the gap between two firm objects of like tree limbs, rocks,
Speaker 1: or window sills. Our exoskeletal pal waits at one end
Speaker 1: of the divide and lets this thread drift in the
Speaker 1: wind until it makes contact with the other side. When
Speaker 1: that's done, the bridge thread is secured at both ends
Speaker 1: and reinforced with additional lines of silk. The bridge thread
Speaker 1: is the first third of a woven triangle. The so
Speaker 1: called frame threads are built in all three corners of
Speaker 1: this structure. Together with the major lines on the triangle sides,
Speaker 1: they create attachment platforms for a set of very tough
Speaker 1: threads known as radii, extending outward from a point at
Speaker 1: the center of the web that is the hub. The
Speaker 1: radii look like the spokes on a bicycle wheel. Next,
Speaker 1: a silken spiral is woven around the hub, covering much
Speaker 1: of the radii. Some orb weavers will repeat this process
Speaker 1: after building an initial spiral out of non sticky silk,
Speaker 1: they replace it with a sticky threaded substitute. A completed
Speaker 1: web is a multifaceted tool. When another creature gets ensnared
Speaker 1: in one, vibrations and the silken threads convey information about
Speaker 1: its size and whereabouts. Spiders use this information while approaching
Speaker 1: their victims. Also, researchers have discovered some orb weaver webs
Speaker 1: attract flying insects by a static electricity. One species, the
Speaker 1: garden center spider, creates these by weaving breads that get
Speaker 1: electrically charged with the arachnid rubs its legs on them. Afterwards,
Speaker 1: some portions of the web become more adhesive. But why
Speaker 1: should or weavers have all the fun? Spiderwebs come in
Speaker 1: more than a hundred and thirty known shapes, many of
Speaker 1: which look pretty far removed from the iconic or weaver design.
Speaker 1: For example, numerous spiders weave horizontally oriented sheet webs, and
Speaker 1: sometimes the setup includes an overhanging layer of disheveled breads
Speaker 1: that intercept unwary flying insects. Here the ideas for the
Speaker 1: victim to collide with one of the upper threads and
Speaker 1: then fall down onto the sticky sheet below. However, sheet
Speaker 1: webs might play a more active role in prey capture.
Speaker 1: Study indicated that moths are attracted to the big horizontal
Speaker 1: webs of the lace sheet weave a subtropical Asian spider
Speaker 1: because it uses highly reflective silk. Since the molds can't
Speaker 1: see very well, entomologists think that the winged critters might
Speaker 1: be mistaking these clusters of luminous threads for well lit
Speaker 1: forest clearings. Another common type of spiderweb is the much
Speaker 1: maligned cobweb sewn by black widows and some related species.
Speaker 1: Cobwebs don't come in well organized geometric patterns. On the contrary,
Speaker 1: they're messy looking tangles of silk that tend to be
Speaker 1: found underneath protective covers like roofs, rocks, or branches. And
Speaker 1: then we've got spiders that don't even bother with webs.
Speaker 1: Wolf spiders and crab spiders have no need for them
Speaker 1: because these free ranging arachnids can usually out muscle their
Speaker 1: prey without using any silken traps. Likewise, tarantulas forego the
Speaker 1: web weaving process, although they have been known to line
Speaker 1: their burrows with silk in order to keep unwanted dirt
Speaker 1: from umulating and other species use silk in creative projects.
Speaker 1: Trapdoor spiders mix it with dirt and vegetation to create
Speaker 1: movable lids for their underground homes, and the aquatic diving
Speaker 1: bell spider builds portable webs underwater and uses them to
Speaker 1: trap bubbles of oxygen. Furthermore so, I just recently learned
Speaker 1: that the peculiar webs actively pull oxygen out of the
Speaker 1: surrounding water, much like the guilds on a fish. Today's
Speaker 1: episode is based on the article spiders can spin webs
Speaker 1: of silk stronger than steel on how stuffworks dot Com,
Speaker 1: written by Mark Mancini. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart
Speaker 1: Radio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com and is
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler clang Or More podcasts my heart Radio,
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