The scaling of safety factor in spider draglines

The Journal of Experimental Biology
C S Ortlepp, J M Gosline

Abstract

This study documents the effect of body mass on the size and strength of draglines produced by the orb-weaving spider Araneus diadematus and the jumping spider Salticus scenicus. Silk samples obtained from individuals spanning the range from first-instar juveniles to gravid adults were tested to determine both the properties of the silk material and the strength and static safety factor of the draglines produced by each individual spider. Analysis of material properties indicates that the tensile strength and extensibility of the silks employed by each species are identical over the entire size range of the species. Analysis of the breaking forces for individual draglines, however, indicates that the draglines scale allometrically with the spider's body mass. For Araneus, breaking force (N) scales with body mass (kg) as Fmax=11.2M0.786, and the static safety factor (S(BW)=Fmax/Mg) scales as S(BW)=1.14M(-0.214). For Salticus, Fmax=0.363M0.66 and S(BW)=0.037M(-0.34). Thus, static safety factors decrease as these spiders grow, with values falling to 4-6 for adult Araneus and to 1-2 for adult Salticus. Analysis of these results suggests that the safety lines produced by these two species are not able to absorb the impact energy of ...Continue Reading

References

May 11, 2004·Biomacromolecules·Christine S Ortlepp, John M Gosline
Jul 8, 2005·The Journal of Experimental Biology·J Pérez-RigueiroG V Guinea
Dec 14, 1984·Science·R B Smith, T P Mommsen

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Citations

Sep 6, 2013·Biomacromolecules·Beth MortimerFritz Vollrath
Aug 9, 2013·Journal of the Royal Society, Interface·Yung-Kang ChenKai-Jung Chi
Jul 18, 2014·Journal of the Royal Society, Interface·Ingo GraweStanislav N Gorb
Jul 6, 2010·Journal of Theoretical Biology·Miguel A Rodríguez-GironésJordi Moya-Laraño
Jul 16, 2010·Journal of Evolutionary Biology·A SensenigT A Blackledge
Jun 16, 2017·The Journal of Experimental Biology·Jonas O WolffStanislav N Gorb
Jun 6, 2019·Genes·Kangkang WangQing Meng
Jul 2, 2020·Molecules : a Journal of Synthetic Chemistry and Natural Product Chemistry·Gabriele Greco, Nicola M Pugno

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