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Influence Of Temperature On The Tensile Strength Of Spider Silk (Araneus Gemmoides), Victoria Lekson
Influence Of Temperature On The Tensile Strength Of Spider Silk (Araneus Gemmoides), Victoria Lekson
Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium
Temperature ranges between day and night in southern California can be as great as 30°C and may influence vital functioning of ectothermic organisms. Arachnids produce silks from a pair of spinnerets in their abdomen and rely on variance in protein composition to make different types of silks. Temperature may influence tensile strength of filaments. We tested the effects of temperature on tensile strength of dragline silk of five specimens of Araneus gemmoides (orb-weaver) which were collected from Malibu Creek State Park in the Santa Monica Mountains of southern California, under five temperature conditions. Each specimen was placed in a 0.0283 …