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First published online January 31, 2007
Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 553-560 (2007)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2007
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02682
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Adhesive recruitment by the viscous capture threads of araneoid orb-weaving spiders

Brent D. Opell* and Mary L. Hendricks

Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA


Figure 1
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  		Fig. 1. Viscous capture threads of (from top to bottom) Leucauge venusta, Metepeira labyrinthea, Araneus pegnia, and Araneus marmoreus. Scale bar, 100 µm.

 

Figure 2
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  		Fig. 2. Models of cribellar and viscous capture threads under a load showing how the greater elasticity of the axial fibers of viscous threads and the plasticity of viscous droplets allow viscous threads to form more acute angles with a contacting surface and, thereby, to direct a higher proportion of force perpendicular to a force pulling on the thread.

 

Figure 3
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  		Fig. 3. Thread samplers, the instrument used to measure thread stickiness, and the interchangeable contact plates used with this instrument.

 

Figure 4
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  		Fig. 4. Relationship of the species included in this study (after Scharff and Coddington, 1997Go).

 

Figure 5
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  		Fig. 5. Stickiness (means ± 1 s.e.m.) measured with four plate widths and, from top to bottom below each genus name, the sample size, number of thread droplets per mm (means ± 1 s.e.m.), and mean droplet volume (µm3x102 ± 1 s.e.m.).

 

Figure 6
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  		Fig. 6. Relationship between the percent increase in the number of droplets contacting plates of increasing widths and the percent change in the mean droplet adhesion of the longer strands contacting these successively wider plates.

 

Figure 7
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  		Fig. 7. Models showing the distribution of adhesion among the droplets of six species' threads contacting plates of 930 µm and 2133 µm widths.

 




© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2007