Joel Anna-Christin, Baumgartner Werner
RWTH Aachen University, Institute of Biology II, Worringerweg 3, 52074 Aachen, Germany
JKU Linz, Institute of Biomedical Mechatronics, Altenberger Straße 69, 4040 Linz, Austria.
J Exp Biol. 2017 Jun 15;220(Pt 12):2243-2249. doi: 10.1242/jeb.157594. Epub 2017 Apr 10.
Technical nanofibre production is linked to high voltage, because nanofibres are typically produced by electrospinning. In contrast, spiders have evolved a way to produce nanofibres without high voltage. These spiders are called cribellate spiders and produce nanofibres within their capture thread production. It is suggested that their nanofibres become frictionally charged when brushed over a continuous area on the calamistrum, a comb-like structure at the metatarsus of the fourth leg. Although there are indications that electrostatic charges are involved in the formation of the thread structure, final proof is missing. We proposed three requirements to validate this hypothesis: (1) the removal of any charge during or after thread production has an influence on the structure of the thread; (2) the characteristic structure of the thread can be regenerated by charging; and (3) the thread is attracted to or repelled from differently charged objects. None of these three requirements were proven true. Furthermore, mathematical calculations reveal that even at low charges, the calculated structural assembly of the thread does not match the observed reality. Electrostatic forces are therefore not involved in the production of cribellate capture threads.
纳米纤维的工业生产与高电压相关，因为纳米纤维通常是通过静电纺丝生产的。相比之下，蜘蛛已经进化出一种无需高电压就能生产纳米纤维的方法。这些蜘蛛被称为 cribellate 蜘蛛，它们在制造捕捉丝的过程中产生纳米纤维。有人认为，当它们的纳米纤维在 calamistrum（第四只腿跗节上的一种梳状结构）的连续区域上摩擦时会带上电荷。尽管有迹象表明静电荷参与了丝线结构的形成，但仍缺乏最终证据。我们提出了三个要求来验证这一假设：（1）在丝线生产过程中或之后去除任何电荷会对丝线结构产生影响；（2）丝线的特征结构可以通过充电来再生；（3）丝线会被不同电荷的物体吸引或排斥。这三个要求都没有被证明是正确的。此外，数学计算表明，即使在低电荷情况下，计算出的丝线结构组装也与观察到的实际情况不相符。因此，静电力并不参与 cribellate 捕捉丝的生产。
