Page 69 - The Miracle in the Spider
P. 69
The Miracle of Silk 69
simple as described here. For silk to emerge, other materials and sacs of
various properties are needed.
The raw material of spider silk is "keratin," a protein that appears as
braided, helical strands of amino acid chains. This material is also found
in hair, horn and feathers. The spider obtains all the raw materials for its
silk from a synthesis of the amino acids it secures by digesting its prey.
Spiders also eat and digest their own webs, thus producing inside their
own bodies the material for further web production.
There is an area at the base of the spider's abdomen where the silk
It is enough to examine their silk glands to realise that spiders could not have
emerged by coincidence. This picture shows the glands on the Madagascar
spider's (Nephila Madagascariensis) right side. There are glands on the left
side as well. Silk glands 1 and 2 produce the dry silk the spider holds on to
when walking on its web, or when climbing up and down. The viscid silk is
produced in another gland (3). This basic silk is coated by the adhesive (sticky)
glands (4 and 5). The 6th gland produces the adhesive necessary for sticking
the silk to another surface. The 7th gland produces the raw material for a
special thin silk used to wrap the prey up after it is caught. The 8th gland
produces the silk for the cocoon. 9, 10, and 11 show the back, central, and
front spinnerets (silk nozzles). Spiders make their silk by means of this
peerless system. It is clear that this system, with its different structures and
functions, could not have come about by coincidences. Spiders were created
together with this system by the Almighty God.