Spider Engineers (1956)

have slowly but surely made him master of his environment the products of man's Ingenuity but no less amazing the lowly spider wers without anything resembling man's transit or Plum line pattern or without any tool except those which God has fashioned as a part of her body there are an estimated 100,000 thousand spee throughout the world each possessing a number of engineering skills that qualify him as a master Craftsman for example the orb weaver Garden variety of spider Engineers webs in a most Exquisite fashion her gossamer highways Bridge leafy chasms with almost invisible ropes of silk each of Incredible strength stronger in fact than steel of equal size she manufactures her rope from silk glands in her body as she goes along six spinettes located at the tip of her abdomen release five different kinds of liquid from 3,600 holes she can spin a single strand a heavy cable or a broad band under her careful control the silk may be elastic or non-elastic sticky or non-sticky colored or transparent from it she will Manu ufacture Foundation skywire scaffolding trap lines signal cords mummy cases baby cradles balloons kites blankets and cushions in making its web this first throws out a strong but narrow bridge this becomes the base for the entire structure the spider then spins a series of radiating spokes as a framework and then beginning at the Hub of the spokes it lays down a circular pattern of threads in an Ever widening spiral the hind legs are used both to measure off the proper distance between the Silvery strands and to place them into [Music] position for man to weed his great aerial highways of steel and concrete requires the combined work of hundreds of Engineers and many months or even years of planning but the spider is endowed with the ability to perform an engineering feat that defies man's ability to fully comprehend the spider's construction is accomplished without any previous training and without any evident blueprint or pattern while waiting for some juicy morsel to blunder into to its trap some spiders will station themselves in the center of the web others however keep hidden nearby when the Trap is sprung the vibrations of the insect struggles are carried to the spider which immediately rushes out to subdue its prey and carefully package it up for a future meal on closer inspection we find that the spider is not an insect at all he is an arachnid something very different for one thing the spider has eight legs in place of the insect six he has two body sections instead of the insects three and unlike the typical insect he has no wings or antenna now perhaps you're wondering how the spider avoids being caught in its own trap well the reason is not hard to find the web is actually made up of two kinds of silk one kind is elastic and sticky the other other is inelastic and nonsticky the spokes of the web the framework and the guidelines that support it are all of inelastic and non-sticky silk but the spirals that connect the spokes are very elastic and stick to everything that touches them [Music] the web is not the only example of spider engineering great skill is exercised in the construction of the egg sack a silken ball which will protect the eggs and later the newly hatched spiderlings first a Downy cushion is spun to cradle the egg when this has reached a satisfactory size egg laying Begins the lustrous Yellow Cap grows hour by hour until some 200 eggs have been deposited when all the eggs are laid they are covered with strand after strand of [Music] silk having made this super Nursery insulated waterproof and furnished with the richest silk satins and floss blankets the mother takes no more interest in her young and she soon dies before long the little ones will emerge from their cushion comfort and without being taught will immediately begin to build miniature webs of exquisite beauty silk spinning is by no means confined to the orb weaver there's a certain fat grotesque creature known as the Bolas spider now of course the word Bolis refers mainly to a kind of larette used by the Argentine GAO but long before the days of the goo our little spider was making good use of the Bolas chances are you've never seen her for like a great many spiders she's active only at night the spider forms her bolus by rolling up a little ball of sticky silk which she hangs from the end of a strong silken line then she pulls herself up to a vantage point catches hold of the bolus and prepares to cast it at the first insect that comes within range what it is that attracts the insect is not definitely known it's possible that the reflection of light on The Swinging bolus is part of the answer be that as it may since the spider is ready and waiting let's dangle a tasty morsel in front of her and see what happens [Music] the spider makes use of a pair of built-in hypodermic needles to put her victim to sleep she injects just enough poison to paralyze the tray but not enough to kill it that way the food remains fresh later the spider returns to feed by draining juices from the body of the victim eventually only the empty shell is left at hatching time a spider nursery is usually overcrowded like most of her kind the female Bola spider will often produce more than 150 little spider [Music] Ling for a long time man's excursions underwater were limited by how long he could hold his breath various devices have extended that limit from a few minutes to several hours a diving sup with a complex system of air and communication lines lead shoes and descending line providing with a cumbersome but reasonably efficient means of remaining submerged another underwater breathing device consisting of compressed air bottles special demand Regulators face mask and breathing tube allow for a much greater freedom of movement as a result thousands of the more adventurous have taken up this exciting sport to add another dimension to their lives but wait a minute what about this little creature the arger Anita or diving spider no elaborate equipment here just a bubble of of air no heavy cable or descending line just a thin strand of [Music] silk the home of the aranita is unique a silvery Bell filled with air and attached to the stems of submerged plants feeding molting mating and the rearing of the family all are carried on beneath the water [Music] like other spiders she is equally well equipped for spinning silk the roof of her house is a network of silk and strands no heavy door bars entrance to this silvery Bungalow she has but to touch the wall and she's in the problem is to get in and out without dividing the house into a duplex and stay out out without drowning this is accomplished in a most ingenious fashion the spider Breeze through openings in its abdomen in order to survive it must always retain a lifegiving bubble of air to cover its evaporator the spider's abdomen bristles with tiny hairs with hooks on the end they not only make it possible to capture the large bubbles but also retain sufficient air for unhampered work and travel beneath the surface there is no need for the aranita to spin a web to capture her prey the surface of the water provides a potential trap for every insect that hops or flies over its surface occasionally a moth drops in for lunch the spider's lunch that is unceremoniously she is escorted to Davy Jones Locker yes at last man has solved the problems of limited Ventures bene beneath the tide apparently accepted by this strange family of creatures that move so gracefully through a fluid sky but we cannot help but pause and wonder at the engineering skill imparted to this little spider that enables it to live a lifetime beneath the water actually we have hardly begun to observe the diversity of skills spiders possess each day we see doors of every kind of every size and shape and for every purpose but actually none of these is quite as remarkable as a door fashioned long before man ever dreamed of the device of course this door isn't easy to see but that's part of the plan the camouflage affords real protection to the trapdoor spider snugly fitted into the ground the door is lined with layer upon layer of silk a Marvel of engineering and no less a Marvel is the spider herself for if in spite of camouflage her privacy is Disturbed she hangs onto the door with all her might in order to break her hold a pull of at least 140 times her weight is needed the trapdoor spider is a skillful engineer that has never seen a drawing board or a Transit and when the need for building a home arises excavation proceedings get underway the spider is well equipped for the job at hand both ends work at once on the south end of a Northbound trapdoor spider is a pair of spinettes these contain tiny openings through which the fluid from the silk glands is spun into fragile strands of silk on the North End a pair of strong pedals function like a steam shovel digging the dirt and placing it precisely where it should be the god that made this wonderful little building Builder provided her with all the necessary tools when she encounters excessive dirt the steam shovel becomes a catapult the finishing work on the trapdoor is the surfacing of the underside with a fine silken [Music] line when the job is completed there will be a lustrous coating of silk from the top of the nest to the bottom and the coating will be as smooth as glass and as soft as down what could be more fitting after A Hard Day's Work than a good Square [Music] meal man's achievements are the result of technical advancements covering many generations but not so with a spider he did not learn to make a web he did not fashion the intricate tools that defy man's ability to fully comprehend or duplicate he did not equip himself to live in these strange environment this is not the work of a beginner but this is the little spider that fashioned this trapdoor had never done it before in the Spider World skilled Craftsmen are not made but born the spider's abilities are not due to its own Ingenuity it possesses tools that it had no part in fashioning clearly then the engineering marbles it performs reflect not its own wisdom but that of God the great planner and engineer who created the spider and traced in it the blueprint for a particular pattern of [Music] life