Spider feet

Once again rain prevented an early morning safari, but I was in business by 10am. Today's project was to study and photograph a golden orb weaver spider, paying particular attention to its feet. This is in response to an intelligent question from one of our younger blippers, MasterRosewarne, who asked, "Why don't spiders get stuck in there web"?

Google did actually reveal a number of explanations from people who had studied spiders, both in the web and under the microscope. The reasons offered were:

1 - spiders are careful where they tread and only step on the non-sticky threads.

The sticky and non-sticky threads bit is true, but the spider pays no attention to which thread she is walking on - so not true.

2 - the spider has oily feet which repels the sticky.

This is probably true and my observations showed that after moving around the web, the spider returns to the center and cleans her feet in her mouth (see blip image) one by one. This is probably where the oil is deposited on the feet.

3 - the spiders feet are hairy, which prevents the glue from reaching the leg.

This is probably true, as can be seen from the image, the feet are hairy and the low surface area of the hairs make them easy to pull from the glue.

4 - the feet have specialized claws that enable them to mechanically eject the sticky thread.

Way too small to see at 1:1 macro, so unconfirmed.

But, back to the original question, which actually assumes that spiders don't get caught in their own web. I actually photographed the spider with web stuck to its foot, so spiders DO get caught in the web, but it was not a big deal.

The left image shows the web stuck to the spider's foot, the right image shows the foot cleaning/oiling operation.

Dave