Studies On The Cocoon Structures And The Conformations And Tensile Properties Of Spider Silk Of Spider Nephila Clavata And Argiope Amoena

The morphologies of Nephila clavata and Argiope amoena spider silk glands were observation for providing photographs of spider silk glands. The relationship between the biological functions of the glands and the strategy of survival and reproduction was discussion basic on the observation of the characteristics of web and cocoon and the behavior of predating on Tenebrio molitor larvas. The six glands of the two species were observed. They are major and minor ampullate glands, flagelliform gland, cylindrical gland, aciniform gland and piriform gland. The morphologies and locations of the two spider silk glands were similar except some glands were little different in the color. The numbers of aciniform glands of A. amoena are more than that of N. clavata. The observations show that the two spiders are different in the characteristics of the web and cocoon. The observation of the predatory behavior indicated that the predatory strategy of N. clavata is bit-wrapping, while the predatory strategy of A. amoena is wrapping - bit. The features of web and cocoon are consistent with the color of the glands. It suggests that the differences in masses and numbers of aciniform glands N. clavata and A. amoena are related with the predatory strategies respectively.The egg case of spider A. amoenawas composed of multi-layered covers with different color silk, which were yellow frame silk, graygreen, pale umber and white or light outer silk, and umber inner silk. The...