How A Spider Makes A Web

Spider webs are fascinating because they are beautiful and serve many purposes. Not all webs
are used to catch prey and some spiders do not build webs at all.
Web-spinning spiders have an innate ability to tell the difference between vibrations from insect
prey and vibrations from other sources (a leaf falling into the web, for example). Many species
can also distinguish the characteristic vibrations of dangerous insects, such as wasps, from their
preferred prey.
Webs allow a spider to catch prey without having to expend energy by running it down. Thus it is
an efficient method of gathering food. However, constructing the web is in itself an energetically
costly process because of the large amount of protein required, in the form of silk. In addition,
after a time the silk will lose its stickiness and thus become inefficient at capturing prey. It is
common for spiders to eat their own web daily to recoup some of the energy used in spinning.
The silk proteins are thus recycled.
So, how do spiders make webs?
Step 1: The spider releases a strand of silk and allows it to float on the breeze until it anchors
itself on another anchor point. Once the initial thread is anchored at the remote end the spider
then anchors the local end. The spider will then traverse the initial line and drags a thicker
(proper) bridging line to replace or reinforce the original line it floated across to create the initial
line.

Step 2: The spider then once more crosses the bridging line this time trailing a loose silk line
behind her, one end has already been fixed before she started back across. The loose silk line is
then fixed at the other-side and the spider then she descends to the center of the loose line she has
just secured to form a V. She now attaches a new silk line and descends to the nearest solid point
and attaches it to form a Y shape.

Step 3: Once the Y is secure the spider then lays the radial spokes and sets the boundary lines.
She then begins to spin a loose spiral from the center of the web outwards to the desired
boundary.

Step 4: Once this is completed, the spider then returns to the center and begins to spin a tighter
spiral which begins to fill in the web.

Step 5: Finally, she completes the spiral and then designs a suitable hide at the edge of the web
and waits there with a leg on one of the radial spokes until her potential prey stumbles or flies
into the trap.

This takes around an hour and a half.

Not all webs are used to actually catch prey. Some spiders will spin very simple webs and wait
there to jump onto their victims. While some will build nets and suspend them underneath their
bodies. When they see their prey, they cast these nets over them. Others use it as an alarm system
to warn them of predators. Some really clever ones will use a maze of webs to stun their prey,
only for them to fall into another web where they get tangled and served for dinner.
The spider sits in the middle of its web, monitoring the radius threads for vibrations. If an insect
gets caught in any part of the web, the spider will feel the motion through the radius threads and
make its way to the vibration source. In this way, the web extends the spider's sensory system
over a much wider area. The spider might also leave the web, to retreat to a separate nest, while
monitoring the web via a connected signal line.