http://www.physorg.com/news108747970.html
Aha! I suspected as much.
A while ago I had some interest in the whole spider silk conundrum with the intent to farm the silk. I figured they would cut down on the cannibalism if they just had an overwhelming amount of food to eat (other then themselves). Producing web is a very protein intensive task and spiders need to eat quite a bit to keep those webs up, but if they have more than enough to eat why should they fight each other for food?
Of course, this may just be this one species and it"s silly to jump to conclusions such as: it would work with other spiders like golden orb weavers... I"d love to run some tests though.
No picture? Thanks physorg.
QUOTE (Nikola+Sep 12 2007, 01:44 PM)
No picture? Thanks physorg.
yup i was disappointed too
and about farming silk... spiders need their webs to get their food, so the two concepts of giving them plenty of food and taking their webs away kinda go against each other
but even if you do find a suitable balance, there's no use yet for spider silk. what do you want it for?
yup i was disappointed too
and about farming silk... spiders need their webs to get their food, so the two concepts of giving them plenty of food and taking their webs away kinda go against each other
but even if you do find a suitable balance, there's no use yet for spider silk. what do you want it for?
No use for spider silk? Are you mad? Hehe. Cloth woven from spider silk would be stronger and a lot more attractive than Kevlar.
As for the no use part, I would like to point out that spider silk is a silk. There is obviously use for silk. Some spider silk is also very beautiful: Not sure how well you can see it here but.. http://frank.itlab.us/spider_2002/large/after_dinner.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_orb_weaver
As I am not able to travel long distances at will due to my job and such, I can't take pictures of what this article is talking about, but here are some spider pictures to make you feel better.
As for the no use part, I would like to point out that spider silk is a silk. There is obviously use for silk. Some spider silk is also very beautiful: Not sure how well you can see it here but.. http://frank.itlab.us/spider_2002/large/after_dinner.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_orb_weaver
As I am not able to travel long distances at will due to my job and such, I can't take pictures of what this article is talking about, but here are some spider pictures to make you feel better.
I doubt these spiders are really cooperating. They would still eat another spider given a chance, but with lots of other things to eat why bother. What would stop them trying to eat another spider, is that other spider is probably the most dangerous thing on the menu.
Spider webs at the lake here:
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findade...web_600x450.jpg
I agree. If they are sharing anchor lines it's probably because it was available to anchor to.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findade...web_600x450.jpg
QUOTE
I doubt these spiders are really cooperating. They would still eat another spider given a chance, but with lots of other things to eat why bother. What would stop them trying to eat another spider, is that other spider is probably the most dangerous thing on the menu
I agree. If they are sharing anchor lines it's probably because it was available to anchor to.
Agree on the noncooperation. Though spiders are not particularly concerned with spider neighbors. But many females eat loitering males to ensure protection of the young, which is easy since females are larger. But the most dangerous thing on the menu would be the wasp. I've seen big spiders cut wasps from the web to avoid that nimble stinger...
...Yes, I'm a longtime hopeless observer of these sorts of things
...Yes, I'm a longtime hopeless observer of these sorts of things
I wasn't saying they were cooperating, just that if you had a large enough pile of tasty insects you might be able to farm spider webs without them eating each other.
Oh, and nice pictures there, people. It's a shame you aren't the ones posting the pictures into the articles themselves
Oh, and nice pictures there, people. It's a shame you aren't the ones posting the pictures into the articles themselves
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