... University Press . Friedrich , V. and Langer , R. M . ( 1969 ). Fine structure of cribellate spider silk . Am. Zool. 9 , 91 - 96 . 10.1093/icb/9.1.91 Garrison , N. L. , Rodriguez , J. , Agnarsson , I. , Coddington , J. A. , Griswold , C. E. , Hamilton , C...

...Shichang Zhang; Dakota Piorkowski; Wan-Rou Lin; Yi-Ru Lee; Chen-Pan Liao; Pi-Han Wang; I-Min Tso ABSTRACT Spider silks are protein-based fibers that are incorporated into webs with the unique combination of high mechanical toughness and resistance to microbial degradation. While spiders...

..., extensible piriform silk to subdue hazardous prey. This derived use of attachment silk comes with strong modifications of the spinning apparatus and reduces the ability to attach structural silk threads. Spider silk Piriform silk Adhesion Prey capture Tensile test Spinneret Araneophagy...

...). Orb webs therefore respond to faster – and hence higher kinetic energy – prey with better performance, suggesting adaptation to capture larger and faster flying insect prey. This speed-dependent toughness of a complex structure suggests the utility of the intrinsic toughness of spider silk...

...Cecilia Boutry; Todd Alan Blackledge SUMMARY Spider silk is a promising biomaterial with impressive performance. However, some spider silks also ‘supercontract’ when exposed to water, shrinking by up to ∼50% in length. Supercontraction may provide a critical mechanism to tailor silk properties...

..., dragline silk emerges as a model for a biomimetic muscle, the contraction of which is precisely controlled by humidity alone. * Author for correspondence (e-mail: [email protected] ) 15 4 2009 2009 biomimetic muscle humidity major ampullate fibroin spider silk...

... in the current study, and in most other studies of spider silks,accurately reflect the properties of dragline silk loaded at the high strain rates that must occur when a spider falls. Silk from A. diadematus shows strain-rate-dependent properties, becoming stiffer, stronger and more extensible...

... process. Silk samples were tensile-tested and their diameters measured. Force-displacement curves and stress-strain curves were drawn. The evolution of the silking process of anaesthetized spiders is found to be complex, but it sheds light on the details of the spinning mechanism of spider silk...

.... A strong correlation between silking force and tensile behaviour of spider silk has been established. Fibres spun at high silking force – compared with the conventional yield stress – are stiff and show stress–strain curves previously found in forcibly silked fibres. By contrast, fibres spun at low...

... The Company of Biologists Limited 2005 2005 spider silk dragline major ampullate gland Nephila Orb-weaving spiders construct webs to catch prey and this trait is easy to quantify, therefore they have been a popular model to study how foragers respond to various foraging conditions( Eberhard...

..., Brunel University, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH. 10 10 1984 © 1985 by Company of Biologists 1985 Safety factors spider drag-lines spider silk Meta segmentata Alexander (1981) argued that if an animal skeleton is too weak it is likely to break in use, but if it is too strong...