Spider silk: thousands of nano-filaments and dollops of sticky glue.

Vollrath F

Some spiders use glues while others deploy strands of fine filaments for fixing flies. Recent work has provided new insights into the mechanical properties of these nano-scale ropes.

Keywords:

Adhesives

,

Animals

,

Biological Evolution

,

Diptera

,

Nanostructures

,

Silk

,

Spiders

,

Stress, Mechanical