promt

• Six spiders of the Pholcus-pholcidae species were collected and placed into  six separate clear containers. The weight of each spider was recorded using an analytical scale. Each spider was placed on a plate, weighed, and then we subtracted the weight of the plate from the weight of the plate with the spider to get the weight of each spider.

• The spiders were given one mosquito at the beginning of the trial after being weighed and allowed to spin their web for three days at a constant environment of 20 degrees celsius.

• A strand of silk was removed from three of the spiders containers because not all 6 spiders produced enough silk to be measured. Using tweezers, the silk from each sample was placed onto a microscope slide and a cover was placed on top.

• We used a Nikon Inverted Microscope Eclipse microscope to take pictures of the samples. For each sample, we took two images of the web from different areas of the sample.

• We used Fiji to analyze the images of the webs. For each image, there was .108 microns per pixel. We used this ratio to determine the ratio to measure silk thickness. The known distance for each thickness was determined using Fiji to draw a line from one end of the silk to the other, and the number of pixels was divided by .108 to give the length of the silk in micrometers.

One thin strand of silk and one thick strand of silk was measured in each image. We measured the thickness of five different points on a 28 μm width of the silk. The average of these five measurements was calculated to determine the average thickness of the silk.