Webbing ID?

[YagerManJennsen]

I found this at school. Just wondering what could have made it.

 

[chanda]

Cool! That looks like the work of one of the Crevice Weavers (Filistatidae) such as the Southern House Spider, Kukulcania hibernalis.

Comparison picture: http://symbiota4.acis.ufl.edu/scan/portal/collections/individual/index.php?occid=20945882

These are great spiders - if a bit on the reclusive side. I've kept the males as pets before (short-term, catch and release a few weeks or months later) but so far have been unable to catch a female. Those crevices they make their webs in can be really difficult to get into - and the spiders are remarkably fast at retreating into them.

 

[The Snark]

Are those sticky lines? Or does the spider just use them as footholds?

(I'm going to guess it is a vertical version along the lines of agelenopsis.)

 

[Biollantefan54]

Are those sticky lines? Or does the spider just use them as footholds?

(I'm going to guess it is a vertical version along the lines of agelenopsis.)

Kukulcania don't produce sticky silk, instead, being cribellate spiders, they pull lots of tiny threads of silk out, making a tangled mess of web on the micro level. This isn't technically sticky but will easily cause prey to get tangled up in it.

 

[The Snark]

This isn't technically sticky but will easily cause prey to get tangled up in it.

Thus the fluffy appearance of the webbing. This applies to all cribellates?

I just had one of those apercu moments. That cribellate webbing, analogous of polymer blanket fluff, the ultra high tensile 'steel alloy' of the latrodectus and the hefty bungee cord of the Nephila. Spiders are so amazing.

 

[Biollantefan54]

I'm not positive if it applies to all but I am sure it does.

 

[Ungoliant]

Thus the fluffy appearance of the webbing. This applies to all cribellates?

Cribellate spiders produce frayed silk that is mechanically very sticky without using glue. It comes out of a plate of spigots (called the cribellum) as numerous fine strands, which the spider then frays by combing with the calamistrum (a set of special hairs) on the hind legs. This is a slow, laborious process, but it seems to produce webs that can be used for a very long time.

Cribellate silk often has woolly or tufted appearance. It's especially noticeable with Kukulcania.

It's amazing how many types of silk spiders produce and how versatile it is.

 

[Smokehound714]

definitely Kukulcania webbing!