Abstract
Many spiders use airborne silk threads for locomotion purposes or web initiation. In the case of bridging, the thread is used to span and cross a gap between two microhabitat structures. In this chapter we report some observations and experiments on bridging behaviour, structure and function of the bridging lines, hoping to inspire new biomechanical and biomimetic research on this fascinating, but sparsely studied mechanism.
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Acknowledgement
Victoria Kastner is acknowledged for linguistic corrections of the manuscript. This work was supported by funds from the German Science Foundation DFG (contract No. GO995/10-1) to SG.
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Wolff, J.O., Schneider, J.M., Gorb, S.N. (2014). How to Pass the Gap – Functional Morphology and Biomechanics of Spider Bridging Threads. In: Asakura, T., Miller, T. (eds) Biotechnology of Silk. Biologically-Inspired Systems, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7119-2_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7119-2_9
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