The web of the garden center spider boasts impressive nanoscale threads. Photo by Hartmut Kronenberger and Katrin Kronenberger/Oxford University

OXFORD, England, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- The web-spinning techniques of a spider commonly found in the gardens of Great Britain may teach engineers a thing or two about creating nanoscale filaments.

Most spiders weave their webs using threads with a thickness measuring a few micrometers. But the feather-legged lace weaver (Uloborus plumipes) spins silk even thinner -- capable of being measured only in nanometers.


Scientists at Oxford University, in England, recently used microscopic video technology to study how the feather-legged lace weaver spins such an effective web. It turns out, the weaver's threads are not only impressively thin, they also possess an electrostatic charge.

First, researchers confirmed that the weaver (or garden center spider) uses one the world's smallest silk spigots to deposit such narrow threads.

"Uloborus has unique cribellar glands, amongst the smallest silk glands of any spider, and it's these that yield the ultra-fine 'catching wool' of its prey capture thread," explained study author Katrin Kronenberger, a researcher in Oxford's Department of Zoology.

But what gives the nano-threads their captivating powers is their electricity.

As the silk is deposited onto the web's catch thread, it's combed out by a special tuft of hairs on the spider's hind legs.

"The technique is not unlike the so-called hackling of flax stems over a metal brush in order to soften and prepare them for thread-spinning," explained Science Magazine's Monique Brouillette.

The process of combing and quickly stretching as the liquid silk solidifies is responsible for giving the web the look of cotton, but also for affording the threads a slight electrostatic charge. These factors combine to create a web that is especially sticky.

Researchers say the spider's techniques could have applications in the world of nanotechnology.

"Studying this spider is giving us valuable insights into how it creates nano-scale filaments," said co-author Fritz Vollrath. "If we could reproduce its neat trick of electro-spinning nano-fibers we could pave the way for a highly versatile and efficient new kind of polymer processing technology."

The new study was published in the journal Biology Letters.