How this spider spins electric webs

Scientists have finally figured out some of the mechanism that allow spiders to produce electrically charge silk filaments in their webs.

According to IFLScience, some spiders use webs composed of thousands of nano-thin filaments to catch their prey - a fact that has long intrigued scientists, mainly because they want to know how we could reproduce it.

Researchers from the University of Oxford studying the cribellate orb spider Uloborus plumipes think they might have hit upon how they do this.

What they found was that the spider's ultra small silk glands keep their silk liquid until the last minute, only solidifying as the spiders violating yank the material out the ducts.

"Then, to give these fibers an electrostatic charge, the spider combs the threads over tiny hairs located on the hind legs. It is this charge that is responsible for the wool-like appearance of the threads and, in combination with the extreme thinness of the fibres, provides Van der Waals forces that help capture and hold onto prey, " IFLScience wrote.