Spider silk

Spider silk - an extraordinary material . One of its features - a huge strength. Silk thread thick pencil can stop a Boeing 747 flying at full speed. We are still unable to reproduce this material , in spite of all our technological advances . There are several spider glands located in the abdomen, which produce spider silk. Each gland produces silk for a special purpose . Known seven different glands. But different species of spiders have only a few of these glands, and not all at once .



     Cancer known as Glandula Ampulleceae major and minor are used for the production of silk threads to move. Glandula Pyriformes used for production of fibers for attachment . Glandula Aciniformes produces yarn for sealing production . Glandula Tubiliformes produces thread for cocoons. Glandula Coronatae used to produce sticky strands.



     Usually spider has three pairs of spinnerets (spinners). But there are spiders with just one pair or even four pairs of spinnerets (spinners). Each spinner has its own function . In the spinners are small tubes that are associated with glands. Number of tubes varies from 2 to 50,000.

 Application of spider silk

     Spider silk is used for several purposes. Poleniziyskie fishermen use gold thread spider Web Spider (Nephila) as a scaffold . In New-Hebrides spider webs were used to make network for transporting arrowheads , tobacco and dried poison for arrowheads . Some tribes in New Guinea used the network as a hat to protect the head from the rain.



     In the First World War thread Araneus diadematus, Zilla atrica, Argiope aurantia and other orb weaving spiders were used as instruments in the crosshairs .



     In 1709, Frenchman , Bon de Saint-Hilaire, demonstrated the possibility of creating fabric from silk. Set cocoons were washed, dried and was then combed yarn . Fired several socks and gloves . Economic feasibility showed that it is not profitable . It has been calculated that in order to produce one kilogram of silk cocoons need 1.3 million spider.



     In Madagascar, there were some attempts to use spiders Nephil for silk production . Thread manually pulled out of the spinnerets (spinner) spider. After depletion of the spider , he was let go in the woods , and took up the next . Assembled silk had a beautiful golden color . This project was also banned due to many problems. At present, attempts are underway to produce silk artificially.