How Do Spiders Walk Up Walls? (BioE 80 Spr2015)
May 26, 2015 • 3:06 PM UTC
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nweiser
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As “biologically curious explorers of the micro-cosmic universe” and avid Spider-man fans, we had some tough questions in mind that we wanted answered about spiders. How are they able to walk up walls? How do their legs attach to their body? Can we see through an “opaque” spider using a foldscope? To answer these questions we found a spider, put it in a slide, and slid that into the foldscope. Tugging on the foldscope tabs, we were able to see the spider up close and personal. After examining our photos we came to a few conclusions. Firstly, an all black spider becomes nearly transparent at its thinner legs and somewhat translucent in its thicker body when viewed with the foldscope. Spiders do in fact have eight legs, which all attach at their cephalothorax. Their cephalothorax is the darkest part, indicating a denser area. We hypothesize that a majority of neurons and the vascular system must pass through here, because it connects the abdomen to the eyes, mouth, and legs. However, how spiders walk up walls is perhaps the most interesting part of this experience though! No, they don’t have suckers on their feet. Instead, each leg has thousands of tiny hairs on them. We propose that each of these hairs provides a contact point for whatever surface the spider is walking on. The points of contact act as hairy adhesives, each providing a small force to anchor the spider. With thousands of hairs, spiders can seemingly defy gravity!
Mark Swerdlow, Nelly Weiser
Mark Swerdlow, Nelly Weiser
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