Editing Spider silk (section)

== Uses ==
All spiders produce silks, and a single spider can produce up to seven different types of silk for different uses.<ref name="Foelix 96">{{cite book|author=Foelix, R. F. |title= Biology of Spiders |url=https://archive.org/details/biologyofspiders00foel_0 |url-access=registration |date= 1996 |publisher= Oxford University Press |location= Oxford; New York|page= [https://archive.org/details/biologyofspiders00foel_0/page/330 330]|isbn= 978-0-19-509594-4 }}</ref> This is in contrast to insect silks, where an individual usually only produces a single type.<ref>{{cite journal |pmid=19728833 |date=2010 |last1=Sutherland |first1=TD |last2=Young |first2=JH |last3=Weisman |first3=S |last4=Hayashi |first4=CY |last5=Merritt |first5=DJ |title=Insect silk: One name, many materials |volume=55 |pages=171–88 |doi=10.1146/annurev-ento-112408-085401 |journal=Annual Review of Entomology}}</ref> Spiders use silks in many ways, in accord with the silk's properties. As spiders have evolved, so has their silks' complexity and uses, for example from primitive tube webs 300–400 million years ago to complex orb webs 110 million years ago.<ref name="Hillyard 07">{{cite book|author= Hillyard, P. |title= The Private Life of Spiders |date= 2007 |publisher= New Holland |location= London |isbn= 978-1-84537-690-1 |page= 160}}</ref>

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! Use
! Example
! Reference
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| Prey capture
| Orb webs produced by the [[Orb-weaver spider|Araneidae]] (typical orb-weavers); tube webs; tangle webs; sheet webs; lace webs, dome webs; single thread used by the Bolas spiders for "fishing".
| <ref name="Foelix 96" /><ref name="Hillyard 07" />
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| Prey immobilisation
| "Swathing bands" to envelop prey. Often combined with immobilising prey using a [[venom]]. In species of [[Scytodes thoracica|Scytodes]] the silk is combined with venom and squirted from the [[chelicerae]].
| <ref name="Foelix 96" />
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| Reproduction
| Male spiders may produce sperm webs; spider eggs are covered in silk cocoons.
| <ref name="Foelix 96" /><ref>{{cite book| doi=10.1007/978-3-642-71552-5_15 | chapter=Ecological Aspects of Spider Webs | title=Ecophysiology of Spiders | year=1987 | last1=Nentwig | first1=Wolfgang | last2=Heimer | first2=Stefan | pages=211–225 | isbn=978-3-642-71554-9 }}</ref>
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| Dispersal
| [[Ballooning (spider)|"Ballooning" or "kiting"]] used by smaller spiders to float through the air, for instance for dispersal.
| <ref name="snerdey">[http://www.snerdey.com/sky/index.html Flying spiders over Texas! Coast to Coast. Chad B., Texas State University Undergrad] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111126042510/http://www.snerdey.com/sky/index.html |date=26 November 2011 }} Describes the mechanical kiting of Spider "ballooning".</ref>
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| Food
| The [[kleptoparasite|kleptoparasitic]] ''[[Argyrodes]]'' eats the silk of host spider webs. Some daily weavers of temporary webs eat their own unused silk, thus mitigating an otherwise heavy metabolic expense.
| <ref name="DoiSMissing" /><ref name="ISBN 978-0-7993-4689-3">Holm, Erik, Dippenaar-Schoeman, Ansie; Goggo Guide; LAPA publishers (URL: WWW.LAPA.co.za). 2010{{page needed|date=September 2013}}</ref>
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|Nest lining and nest construction
| Tube webs used by "primitive" spiders such as the European tube web spider (''[[Segestria florentina]]''). Threads radiate out of the nest to provide a sensory link to the outside. Silk is a component of the lids of spiders that use "trapdoors", such as members of the family [[Ctenizidae]], and the "water" or "diving bell" spider ''[[Argyroneta aquatica]]'' forms a silk [[diving bell]].
| <ref name="Hillyard 07" />
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|Guide lines
| Some spiders that venture from shelter leave a silk trail by which to find their way home again.
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|Drop lines and anchor lines
| Spiders such as the [[Salticidae]] venture from shelter and leave a trail of silk, use that as an emergency line in case of falling from inverted or vertical surfaces. Others, even web dwellers, deliberately drop from a web when alarmed, using a silken thread as a drop line by which they can return in due course. Some, such as species of ''Paramystaria'', hang from a drop line while feeding.
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|Alarm lines
| Some spiders that do not spin actual traps build alarm webs that the feet of their prey (such as ants) can disturb, cueing the spider to pounce on prey or flee a formidable intruder.
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|Pheromonal trails
| Some wandering spiders leave a largely continuous trail of silk impregnated with pheromones that the opposite sex can follow to find a mate.
| <ref name="ISBN 978-0-7993-4689-3" />
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