... ampullate silk biomaterial Nephila clavipes Most of the world's 40,000 species of spiders produce dragline silk from major ampullate silk glands to spin lifelines and frames of webs( Fig. 1A,B ). Dragline silk's impressive toughness (work/volume ∼5× greater than Kevlar®),high strength to weight...

...N. Kojic; J. Bico; C. Clasen; G. H. McKinley SUMMARY We investigate the rheological properties of microliter quantities of the spinning material extracted ex vivo from the major ampullate gland of a Nephila clavipes spider using two new micro-rheometric devices. A sliding plate micro-rheometer...

... network with great stiffness, strength and toughness. As illustrated by a comparison of MA silks from Araneus diadematus and Nephila clavipes , variation in fibroin sequence and properties between spider species provides the opportunity to investigate the design of these remarkable biomaterials...