I walked face first into one of these the other day...felt like Indiana Jones. The entire web flexed as my face pushed it backwards. I swear I felt the Big Hairy One scurry away.
For my part, as the threads of super-strength silk began to impress on the skin of my face like elastic, I froze and immediately backed off.
Disaster averted (more so for the spider than me it has to be said - fair bit of work in constructing one of these webs actually - I know, I watched once).
Up close he (or she) was working his/her mandibles, as if eating, however, it could have been grooming. Perched head-down on its eight perfectly formed legs.
Impressive spider - no doubt.
I walked through a couple of these webs tonight, early into their construction as I think they were only support cables - foundations if y'like, but they wrapped around me and I had to pick them off me for minutes after - unsuccessfully I discovered whilst sitting on the sofa.
As I proceeded to remove the silk, it was like pulling a thread of cotton from a piece of clothing. I could see the clothing pull with the silk as its terrific adhesive qualities resisted; could hear the faint noise that came with it.
I gathered it all up in the same fashion one would when rolling up a piece of cotton thread - rolling it between thumb and index finger.
Now I have a small ball of pure spider silk. This from one or two threads. Amazing stuff.
3 comments:
The natural world is a fascinating place to which anyone who watches David Attenborough will ascribe.
This is a very well written article,Muttars.
Why don't you send it off to a "Nature" publication?
In our house we never kill spiders--we catch them in a jar and deposit them outside.
Of course we do not have "dangerous " ones over here.
Wow, fantastic pic!
Aye, it's no bad...imagine how great it would be if a: I knew how to use a camera and b: HAD, in fact, a decent one (camera that is).
He could have his own scary film could this boyo.
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