spider silk

A female specimen of Argiope bruennichi wraps her prey in silk. Indian Summer by Józef Chełmoński (1875, National Museum in Warsaw) depicts a peasant woman with a thread of gossamer in her hand. Spider silk is a protein fibre or silk spun by spiders. Spiders use silk to make webs or other structures that function as adhesive traps to catch prey, to entangle and restrain prey before biting, to transmit tactile information, or as nests or cocoons to protect their offspring. They can use the silk to suspend themselves from height, to float through the air, or to glide away from predators. Most spiders vary the thickness and adhesiveness of their silk according to its use.

In some cases, spiders may use silk as a food source. While methods have been developed to collect silk from a spider by force, gathering silk from many spiders is more difficult than from silk-spinning organisms such as silkworms.