We could say that cobwebs are a wonderful piece of engineering. The construction of these webs follows identical patterns among the different species of spiders. But have you ever wondered if all cobwebs are identical or, on the contrary, if each cobweb is unique?
Curiosities about cobwebs
There are approximately 48,000 species of spiders worldwide, and although all spiders have silk-producing organs (known as rows) and can produce different varieties of silk, not all spiders weave or stalk their prey.
Some spiders actively hunt for food, but use the silk to make egg sacks or small houses to hide in, as stated by the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle (United States).
Other spiders, on the other hand, use silk to build ingenious traps, such as nets that contain oxygen to breathe underwater and silk pulleys capable of lifting lizards or small mammals.
According to Samuel Zschokke, an arachnologist at the University of Basel (Switzerland), only 10% of spiders are capable of making orb webs. These cobwebs have a spiral structure that radiate outward from the center. In addition, they are ideal for catching flying insects, as they are almost invisible and provide a very wide area to capture prey.
No two cobwebs are the same
Although they all look identical, no two cobwebs in the world are exactly alike. Spiders that build orb webs often follow similar patterns. They start with a few threads centered in one point and then establish a frame to which they add a few more threads in the middle.
Then they create more threads from the center to the frame. These are the so-called radios. At this point, the spider begins to move to the middle and builds what is known as an ‘auxiliary spiral’ from the inside out. It is a non-sticky structure made of silk.
When that spiral is finished, the spider creates a new auxiliary (sticky) spiral by working towards the center of the frame. Finally, the spider removes the auxiliary coil that had helped it.
Likewise, researchers have been able to observe that weaver spiders (especially those of the genus Uloborus diversus ) built similar, but never identical, webs. Even if the environmental conditions remained the same day after day.
Under the effects of stimulants
According to scientists, some very distinctive and unusual cobwebs have arisen from circumstances that most spiders do not find in nature. For example, exposure to various stimulants, sedatives, and psychedelics.
Since the 1940s, scientists have manipulated spiders to design webs that are completely different from the usual patterns, using a mixture of mind-altering drugs.
