Spider silk spinning field, the spinneret apparatus of an adult "Araneus diadematus" (garden cross spider) consists of the glands shown below. Similar multiple gland architecture exists in the black widow spider. In order to artificially synthesise spider silk into fibres, there are two broad areas that must be covered. These are synthesis of the feedstock (the unspun silk dope in spiders), and synthesis of the spinning conditions (the funnel, valve, tapering duct, and spigot). There have been a number of different approaches. The molecular structure of unspun silk is both complex and extremely long. Though this endows the silk fibres with their
Black garden ant Black garden ant The black garden ant ("Lasius niger"), also known as the common black ant, is a formicine ant, the type species of the subgenus "Lasius", found all over Europe and in some parts of North America, South America, Australia, Asia and Australasia. The European species was split into two species; "L. niger" is found in open areas, while "L. platythorax" is found in forest habitats. It is monogynous, meaning colonies have a single queen. "Lasius niger" colonies can reach in size up to around 40,000 workers in rare cases but 4,000–7,000 is around average. A "Lasius niger" queen