麻豆约拍

The garden orb spider is the master spinner of the classic spiders' web. Chris Packham meets spider expert Emma Shaw. The web is a feat of engineering. It has a bridging thread between two high points, which is the first part of the web to be constructed. These cross threads are incredibly tough - half the strength of steel, twice that of bone. Webs can last quite a long time, but the spiders will rebuild them when they need to. They can rebuild on a daily basis, eating the old web and producing a new one. The spider catches a fly and wraps it in a special silk. She'll inject it with digestive juices and later suck out all the nutritious innards. Chris and Emma watch a spider building her web. She uses two types of silk - a non-sticky one for the spokes and a sticky one for the capture threads. She makes the web very quickly and very neatly. They talk about experiments in which spiders were given various drugs including LSD, amphetamines, cannabis and caffeine. The caffeine caused the most messed up webs. Spend one hour of your life watching a spider making her web - you won't regret it.