[The attraction of silk: base of group cohesion and collective behavior in social spiders]
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Updated: Aug 21, 2026

Microdissection of Black Widow Spider Silk-producing Glands
Published on: January 12, 2011
Alexandre Bernard1, Bertrand Krafft
1Laboratoire de biologie du comportement, université Henri-Poincaré, BP 239, 54506 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France. bernara2@hotmail.com
Abstract:
Social spiders differ from social insects by the production and the use of silk to build irregular webs. This silk prevents dispersion of the individuals and ensures the group cohesion during swarming and collective displacements, playing a part similar to tracks of pheromones in ants. A social spider Anelosimus eximius is attracted by conspecific silk and does not show any discrimination relative to its origin, excluding any group closure. The quantity of silk and the state of satiety of the individual modulate this attraction, and might explain how the spider society adapts the size of the web to its nutritional needs.
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