Golden Balls

This is a macro of a section of golden orb weaver spider web, nephila pilipes. It caught my eye in the morning sun and represented a blip that I have been wanting to do for some time.

All of the articles that I remember reading about spider silk, say that spiders produce two types of silk, non-stick and sticky. Some articles state that spiders have up to eight silk producing glands and can accordingly produce up to eight different types of silk. They didn't go into details about what the different silks were, so I will confine myself to the two web silks that I am familiar with.

The frame of the web, the long, straight radial lines, are constructed of many threads of non-stick thread. These radial lines are fixed in position by a non-stick, loose spiral line. Only then does the spider lay down the sticky spiral, starting at the perimeter and gradually spiraling towards the center. The non-stick spiral serves no further function and is removed and eaten.

Spiders regularly dismantle their webs, as the stickiness becomes less effective. The old web is recycled by eating and a new web is built.

Personally, I am not convinced that the two types of web are in fact different. I think that the spiral web is non-stick, rendered sticky by the addition of the globs of glue, which you can see in today's image. I should have thought on to check the line for stickiness, perhaps tomorrow, as there is a heavy rain storm at the moment.

Even if the whole of the spiral line was sticky, this could still be just the addition of the sticky substance. I believe that it it was a different kind of silk material, then there would be no globules visible. But, I say again, this is all conjecture.

Late blip tomorrow - Singapore VISA run.

Dave