SECOND EVOLUTION. “The second major shift involves the mechanism of adhesion, from dry cribellate fibrils that adhere through van der Waals forces and hygroscopic interactions to chemically adhesive viscid glue in ecribellate spiders. This results in webs with greater adhesion per surface area and may have facilitated the transition from horizontal to vertical web orientation in modern orb spiders, which is associated with increased prey interception rates.”
http://www.pnas.org/content/106/13/5229.full
linkedin post 2022-06-29 05:12:48
Nigel Fleming
September 21, 2022