Adhesion enhancement of cribellate capture threads by epicuticular waxes of the insect prey sheds new light on spider web evolution
To survive, web-building spiders rely on their capture threads to restrain prey. Many species use special adhesives for this task, and again the majority of those species cover their threads with viscoelastic glue droplets. Cribellate spiders, by contrast, use a wool of nanofibres as adhesive. Previous studies hypothesized that prey is restrained by van der Waals' forces and entrapment in the nanofibres. A large discrepancy when comparing the adhesive force on artificial surfaces versus prey implied that the real mechanism was still elusive. We observed that insect prey's epicuticular waxes infiltrate the wool of nanofibres, probably induced by capillary forces. The fibre-reinforced composi…
Supplementary material from Adhesion enhancement of cribellate capture threads by epicuticular waxes of the insect prey sheds new light on spider web evolution
Document includes figure S1, S2 and S3 as well as table S1 and S2
Movie S1 from Adhesion enhancement of cribellate capture threads by epicuticular waxes of the insect prey sheds new light on spider web evolution
Fluid matrix consisting of cuticular waxes propagates from the prey (here: elytra of C. maculatus) through the cribellate capture thread (here: U. plumipes). Sped up 8 times
Movie S2 from Adhesion enhancement of cribellate capture threads by epicuticular waxes of the insect prey sheds new light on spider web evolution
Single puffs of the capture thread of U. plumipes peel off the elytra of C. maculatus. Sped up 2.4 times.