Why do spiders make silk?

Answer 1

Caterpillars << please note the spelling, it will help you find more information!

They make silk to spin a cocoon. The caterpillar eats a lot of mulberry leaves and its body transforms the leaves into whatever nutrition it uses to make silk. (Kind of like a spider makes thread inside itself.)

The caterpillar makes a cocoon around itself to protect itself while it becomes a butterfly.

But, the ancient Asian people somehow figured out that you could take these cocoons and cook them, which loosens the silk so that a person can "unwind" the cocoon -- basically, a person can un-spin the cocoon that the caterpillar was spinning.

Of course the caterpillar dies from this.

You can also look up "silkworm" on Wikipedia.

Hope that helps! HC

Answer 2

Spiders have the innate ability to make several kinds of silk. The earliest use of silk appears to have been to line the vertical burrows that primitive spiders (including trap door spiders) make. The next development was to string single lengths of silk out radically from the burrow so that any insects that wandered by would be likely to cross over the lines and alert the spider to an approaching meal. Perhaps the next step was to make webbed areas that coated all the ground around the burrow. That kind of ground-hugging web could have evolved into an elevated web that leads down to a hiding spot beneath the web by way of a funnel-shaped tube at the edge of the web. The next step in structure may have been the kind of web that is a series of radial lines like the spokes of a bicycle wheel that are first put up by the spider and later supply the foundation for a spiral web that winds around and around from the center to the periphery. A more sophisticated web actually looks less desirable, but it is better at catching insects. This structure is called a "tangled web," and consists of many fibers that criss-cross a volume of space. Once an insect flies inside this structure it is at risk of getting stuck to one or more of the lines of adhesive-coated silk. There are spiders that spit silk at their prey, and spiders that are smaller than most spider webs but can be snapped out at insects that come in to close to where the spider is waiting. Several different kinds of spiders make special shelters to rest in. One kind of spider makes a sort of sukjeb diving bell under water. The spider swims down to this safe place after it has captured prey or latched onto a bubble of air, and the spider spends most of its time when not working safe under water.

Jumping spiders always attach themselves to a strong anchor of some sort with a safety line made out of silk. That way if they jump and miss their landing they will be saved by their security line and will not fall to their death.

Many different kinds of spiders will wrap their prey in silk to help subdue the prey and/or to make it easier to handle while it is being eaten.

In addition to coating burrow walls and making snares to catch prey, spiders also use their webbing to make egg sacs. These sacs are filled with eggs, closed up, and then carried with the spider, hung in or near to the spider's web, hidden within a silken shelter or a nursery web, etc.

Spiders are genetically equipped to produce spider silk and to use it in various kinds of ways. They appear not to need any help in figuring out how to build with it or otherwise use it.

Answer 3

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i need you to get this answer right away.

{why do caterpillers need to spin silk

Answer 4

silk worms make silk but I am not 100% sure

Answer 5

can caterpillars make silk

yes they can