We found a paper that dealt with spider web production in terms of web mass and temperatures affect on it. They used 20 female spiders and randomly assigned them to one of their 4 temperature groups. They kept them at the temperature for six days (Barghusen et al). Fruit flies were dropped into the web with an relatively complex apparatus, beyond the scope of our project. They created a gradient of temperatures by putting two aluminum pans on a hot plate. The pans were positioned in such a way that the entire pan wouldn’t get hot. The different temperature regions were indicated by marking on the pan, not barriers that the spider could not cross. They found that web mass was much lighter in the colder conditions. We used some of their methods and ideas to design our own experiment, particularly their enclosure design.
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