--- title: Animal builders: spiders' webs and silk — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Animal builders: spiders' webs and silk», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: On an autumn morning a garden fence can glitter with a wheel of dew drops: that is an orb web, usually almost invisible. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/244-animal-builders-spiders-webs-and-silk/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Animal builders: spiders' webs and silk # Animal builders: spiders' webs and silk Lesson 244 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 16 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/244-animal-builders-spiders-webs-and-silk/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/244-animal-builders-spiders-webs-and-silk/0/) — On an autumn morning a garden fence can glitter with a wheel of dew drops: that is an orb web, usually almost invisible. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/244-animal-builders-spiders-webs-and-silk/1/) — The spider spins it from silk that comes out of its body as a liquid and hardens as it is pulled out of little nozzles called spinnerets at the back of its body. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/244-animal-builders-spiders-webs-and-silk/2/) — The web is a wheel of dry spokes with a sticky spiral, and the spider sits waiting, feeling the threads the way you feel a phone buzz in your pocket. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/244-animal-builders-spiders-webs-and-silk/3/) — Not every spider builds a web: some dig trapdoors, some live in an air bubble under a pond, some swing a sticky ball, and some hunt like little cats with big eyes. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/244-animal-builders-spiders-webs-and-silk/4/) — For its weight, some spider silk is stronger than steel and very stretchy, which is why scientists study it so closely. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/244-animal-builders-spiders-webs-and-silk/5/) — An orb web is a wheel of strong spokes with a sticky spiral that catches flying insects; dew on the silk shows the pattern, and a garden spider often eats its old web and builds a new one nearly every day. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/244-animal-builders-spiders-webs-and-silk/6/) — The spider feels vibrations through the threads and can tell where the prey is and how big it is; many web spiders see poorly and read the web like a telephone line. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/244-animal-builders-spiders-webs-and-silk/7/) — The spider walks mostly on the dry spokes and has special claws and hairs on its feet; only the spiral carries sticky glue drops. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/244-animal-builders-spiders-webs-and-silk/8/) — For its weight, some spider silk is stronger than steel and very stretchy, because its proteins are lined up in a special way; Darwin's bark spider in Madagascar spins webs across rivers up to about 25 metres wide. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/244-animal-builders-spiders-webs-and-silk/9/) — Many young spiders let out a thread and float away on the wind, which is called ballooning; experiments suggest the Earth's electric field may help to lift them, and they have landed on ships far out at sea. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/244-animal-builders-spiders-webs-and-silk/10/) — Trapdoor spiders dig burrows with a hinged lid of soil and silk, feel insects walk by through trip lines of silk, and some live over 40 years. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/244-animal-builders-spiders-webs-and-silk/11/) — The diving bell spider makes a silk tent under water and fills it with air carried from the surface; it is the only spider that lives almost all its life under water. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/244-animal-builders-spiders-webs-and-silk/12/) — Real spiders cannot write words, but some weave zigzag silk decorations into their webs, which may warn birds away or attract insects; a spider can make up to seven kinds of silk. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/244-animal-builders-spiders-webs-and-silk/13/) — The bolas spider makes no web: it swings a single line with a sticky blob that smells like a female moth, and male moths fly in and get caught. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/244-animal-builders-spiders-webs-and-silk/14/) — Jumping spiders build no catching web: they stalk and leap, their big front eyes work like telescopes, they see colours, and some plan a route round obstacles to reach their prey. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/244-animal-builders-spiders-webs-and-silk/15/) — There is no evidence that people swallow spiders in their sleep; a sleeping person breathes, snores and moves, which spiders avoid, and the «fact» spread without proof. - ← previous: [Animal builders: termite mounds, weaver birds and other nest makers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/243-animal-builders-termite-mounds-weaver-birds-and-other-nest-makers/) - next →: [More builders: caddis cases, paper wasps, moles, apes' beds and sand circles](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/245-more-builders-caddis-cases-paper-wasps-moles-apes-beds-and-sand-circles/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)