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