Why aren spiders caught in their own webs?
Spiders have several spinneret glands located at the spider’s abdomen which produce the silken thread. Each gland produces a thread for a special purpose. Seven different gland types have currently been identified, although each species of spider will possess only a few of these types, never all seven at once. Normally a spider has three pairs of spinnerets, but there are spiders with just one pair or as many as four pairs of spinnerets, with each spinneret having its own function. Webs allow a spider to catch prey without having to expend energy by running it down. Thus it is an efficient method of gathering food. However, constructing the web is in itself an energetically costly process due to the large amount of protein required, in the form of silk. In addition, after a time the silk will lose its stickiness and thus become inefficient at capturing prey. It is not uncommon for spiders to eat their own web daily to recoup some of the energy used in spinning. The silk proteins are th
