Sticky feet.Spider-Man may cast a web with a flick of his wrist. But this real-life spider can outsling the superhero su·per·he·ro n. pl. su·per·he·roes A figure, especially in a comic strip or cartoon, endowed with superhuman powers and usually portrayed as fighting evil or crime. : The zebra tarantula tarantula (tərăn`chələ), name applied chiefly to several species of the large, hairy spiders of the families Theraphosidae and Dipluridae of North and South America. The body of a tarantula may be as much as 3 in. (7. shoots silk from its feet--while climbing. Scientists have long known that a tarantula, like all spiders, produces silk inside its abdomen. The spider secretes the watery substance through openings on its abdomen called spinnerets. But recent research provides the first evidence that the spiders can spin silk from other parts of their body too. "It was previously unknown that any spider could make silk from their feet," said Cheryl Hayashi, a scientist at the University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside, commonly known as UCR or UC Riverside, is a public research university and one of ten campuses of the University of California system. , who was involved in the latest research. In the study, scientists coaxed Costa Rican zebra tarantulas (Aphonopelma seemanni) to crawl up steep glass surfaces. When the spider slipped, it would ooze OOZE - Object oriented extension of Z. "Object Orientation in Z", S. Stepney et al eds, Springer 1992. sticky silk from tiny nozzles on its feet. That helped put the brakes on the tarantula's descent. |
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