Biology:List of animals that produce silk

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Silk is produced by a variety of animals, for different purposes, with various types being produced.

Insects

  • Silkworms produce silk when undergoing larval to adult metamorphosis.
  • Raspy crickets produce silk to form nests.
  • Honeybee and bumblebee larvae produce silk to strengthen the wax cells in which they pupate.[1]
  • Bulldog ants spin cocoons to protect themselves during pupation.[1]
  • Weaver ants use silk to connect leaves together to make communal nests.[1]
  • Caddisfly larvae produce silk.
  • Webspinners have silk glands on their front legs.
  • Hornets
  • Silverfish
  • Mayflies
  • Thrips
  • Leafhoppers produce silk nests under the leaves of the trees where they live, to protect them against predators.[2]
  • Beetles
  • Lacewings
  • Fleas
  • Flies
  • Midges
  • Caterpillars of many butterfly species use silk to create shelters or attach to substrates for pupation.[3]
  • Parasitic wasps such as braconids use silk cocoons for pupation.[4]

Other animals

  • The family Projapygidae in the order Diplura have cerci that contain silk glands.[5]
  • The mussel Pinna nobilis creates silk to bond itself to rocks. It is used to make sea silk.
  • Spiders make spider silk for various purposes such as weaving their webs, protecting their eggs or as a safety line.
  • The ampiphod Peramphithoe femorata uses silk to make a nest out of kelp blades. Another ampiphod, Crassicorophium bonellii, use silk to build shelter.
  • Carp produce fibroin units, a component of silk, to attach their eggs to rocks.[6]
  • Spider mites make webs that protects them against predators.
  • Pseudoscorpions make silk chambers in which they molt.
  • Goats have been genetically modified to produce milk containing extractable silk proteins.[7]
  • Dulichia rhabdoplastis [8]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Bees Are The New Silkworms". ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071126092140.htm. Retrieved 2014-06-06. 
  2. Gurr, Geoff M.; Fletcher, Murray J. (2011). "Silk production by the Australian endemic leafhopper Kahaono montana Evans (Cicadellidae: Typhlocybinae: Dikraneurini) provides protection from predators". Australian Journal of Entomology: no. doi:10.1111/j.1440-6055.2011.00813.x. 
  3. "Pre-Chrysalis Variegated Fritillary - Euptoieta claudia". https://bugguide.net/node/view/202368. 
  4. "Tobacco Hornworm (parasitoid and hyperparasite) - BugGuide.Net". https://bugguide.net/node/view/75282. 
  5. Diplura
  6. "Silk production and use in arthropods". Map of Life. http://www.mapoflife.org/topics/topic_267_Silk-production-and-use-in-arthropods/. Retrieved 2014-06-06. 
  7. Elices, M.; Guinea, G. V.; Plaza, G. R.; Karatzas, C.; Riekel, C.; Agulló-Rueda, F.; Daza, R.; Pérez-Rigueiro, J. (2011). "Bioinspired Fibers Follow the Track of Natural Spider Silk". Macromolecules 44 (5): 1166–1176. doi:10.1021/ma102291m. Bibcode2011MaMol..44.1166E. 
  8. "Some crustaceans have evolved a way to make silk". https://www.science.org/content/article/some-crustaceans-have-evolved-way-make-silk. 

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