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Photos: New species spins the world's strongest and largest spider web wildmadagascar.org September 20, 2010
Darwin's bark spider (Caerostris darwini), a type of orb spider, weaves webs that span rivers and lakes to capture up to 30 insects at a time. One web reached 82 feet (25 meters) in length, giving the species the title of the world's largest web spinner. The length of the webs allow the Darwin's bark spider to capture insects in a niche otherwise unexploited by spiders.
"The toughness of forcibly silked fibers averages 350 MJ/m3, with some samples reaching 520 MJ/m3," write the authors. "Thus, C. darwini silk is more than twice tougher than any previously described silk, and over 10 times better than Kevlar®." The giant webs are generally created by female spiders—males devote themselves to mating. Webs are thought to take multiple days to create. Scientists have documented larger webs before but these have always been created by groups of colonies of spiders, rather than an individual. Citation: Agnarsson I, Kuntner M, Blackledge TA (2010) Bioprospecting Finds the Toughest Biological Material: Extraordinary Silk from a Giant Riverine Orb Spider. PLoS ONE 5(9): e11234. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011234
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