- Previous Article
- Next Article
- Table of Contents
Journal of Adhesion, Vol.87, No.6, 595-614, 2011
A Review on Spider Silk Adhesion
Spiders employ clever behavioral strategies combined with almost invisible custom-made adhesive silk fibers to spin prey capture webs. The adhesives used in these webs evolved over millions of years into a class of natural materials with outstanding properties. Here, we review how spiders use different adhesives to capture prey. We show how spiders take advantage of the elasticity of both the capture silk and the glue to enhance adhesive forces, thereby providing important insights in designing new synthetic adhesives.
Keywords:Black widow cobwebs;Cribellar silk;Glycoproteins;Spider silk adhesion;Orb-weaving spiders;Viscid silk