Animals That Produce Incredible Silk
Hornets Thermoelectric Silk When the eggs of the oriental hornet hatch, the larvae begin to secrete silk fibers which they weave into silk caps at the open end of their comb nest, thus immediately protecting them from the outside. The pupae continue spinning silk, forming a layer on the comb walls, and cocooning themselves for further protection.
Balloon Fly During courtship or copulation some animals exchange nuptial gifts, ranging from nutritious gifts like insects or nuts to non-nutritional gifts like twigs – with the size of the gift being a huge determinant in how long copulation lasts and the likelihood of successful sperm transfer. The adult male dance fly is no exception and often wraps the prized possession in silk secreted from its dermal glands, located in its forelegs.
Glowworms Twinkling Entrapment In dark damp caves in New Zealand, there are gnat larvae who secrete silk from their mouth, creating a network of thin, double-stranded, silk threads.These threads, of variable length, dangle from the cave, and are coated at regular intervals with droplets of glistening, sticky mucus (that the larvae also secretes) – resembling crystal bead strands running through the cave.
Lacewings Suspended Eggs Eggs from the Australian Lacewing are easy targets for predators such as ants. In an attempt to circumvent this, adults push out a drop of silk, from their abdomen, onto the underside of a leaf, stretch it out to the point it stiffens, and then ‘bottoms’ it off with an egg. Voilà, just like that, the egg escapes detection, by being suspended from the leaf, and removed from the ants trail. The tough, unique, concertina door-like protein structure of the silk has an added benefit.
Shrimps Waterproof Glue Until 2011 it was thought crustaceans were the only order within arthropods that did not have at least one silk-producing representative.However, this all changed when research scientists at Oxford Silk Group discovered a shrimp-like marine crustacea that had the ability to spin silk from its legs.
Caddisflies Snares Caddisflies build their homes using their silk, which is also waterproof, however unlike the crustacea, caddisfly larvae secrete their silk from a pair of silk glands found in their spinneret (an organ which is by the side of their mouth), giving the extruded silk the appearance of a “double ribbon with a seam the long way”, and resembling a form of double-sided sticky tape.
Webspinners Live Life in Homemade Silk Tunnels Like spiders but unlike other insects, webspinners produce and use silk throughout their life. With over a hundred silk glands found in the swollen forelegs of webspinners, they are capable of quickly spinning large sheets of very fine silk (known as galleries) onto tree bark, beneath rocks and in leaf litter.
Creepy Moth Caterpillar Like the webspinner, ermine moth caterpillars build large silk sheets which they use as protection while feeding. However, when several female adults lay their eggs in close proximity, it can results in hundreds of caterpillars spinning huge sheets, joining together to make superwebs.
Weaver Ants Silk Tool Weaver ants are no exception and are brought into the workforce from a very young age: constructing their nests by sticking leaves together using the glue of larvae.
Genetically Engineered Goats Okay, so up until now, everything on this list has been an arthropod and evolved to produce its own silk; although this animal does not quite fit the bill, it is too extraordinary not to include, and that is because it is a goat. Although it is not a natural process and has needed a big helping hand from man – in this case it was one particular scientist, Randy Lewis – a small group of goats are now able to produce spiders silk protein.