Spider Venom
-how spider work
Components in the neurotoxic venom of an Australian funnel-web spider have been found to be specific for insects such as cockroaches, crickets, fruit-flies and the Helicoverpa armigera moth which destroys cotton crops .Targeting specific species prevents the accidental killing of other insects. how spider work This selectivity also means that the pesticide is harmless to other organisms so there would be no danger if it entered the food chain.how spider worke6 The compounds in venom are environmentally friendly and the development of resistance to a spider venom pesticide would be slow.
Traditional chemical pesticides do not tend to be species specific, are toxic to humans in large amounts and insects develop resistance towards them relatively fast so it is easy to see why pesticides based on spider venom are attractive.
how spider work
While all spider species spin silk, they do a number of different things with the fiber once they produce it.how spider worke6 Not all species spin webs, and many don’t use their silk in hunting at all. Just like human building materials, spider silk has a wide range of applications.
One of the most common silk uses is the dragline. As some spiders move from place to place, they lay out a thin, dry thread behind them. Just like a mountain climber, the spider uses the thread as a safety line. If it gets in trouble, it can quickly backtrack on the line to get to safety.
Another common silk use is nursery building. In most species, female spiders will spin a thick, protective cocoon for their developing eggs and sometimes the spiderlings once they’ve hatched. Some species will leave the cocoon unattended while the young spiders develop, and others, such as wolf spiders, will carry the cocoons around with them.
how spider work
he most familiar use of silk, of course, is web building. Web structure varies a good deal from species to species. Some spiders build totally disorganized cobwebs, some form long funnels out of silk sheets and some work as a colony to form huge masses of silk sheets around plant life. Some spiders, such as the net-casting spider, will form a small web between their legs and quickly wrap up any insect that gets caught.
The best-known web is the orb web, the intricate design spun by most garden spiders. This web is one of the most remarkable structures in nature, and its construction is among the most incredible animal activities you’ll ever see. We’ll examine this process in the next section.
