Spiders are a large family, there are about 22,000 species in the world, and at least more than 3,000 species in China. Most spiders live on webs and rely on hunting skills. The unique ability of spiders has gradually been recognized and utilized by people, and has made unique contributions to the scientific development of human society.
Spiders are single-eaters, all meat-eating; fierce in temperament, specializing in catching live insects. In the field of hope, spiders are a vast army of biological control and a veritable "pastoral guard". In the southwest region of Lu, known as the "ground man", the Chinese tarantula, in the summer dusk, has come out of the burrow, hunting a large number of beetles, noctus, flies, leafhoppers, planthoppers, locusts and other insects, especially for the spawning period of small ground tigers and scarab beetles.
Expert research has pointed out that 90% of the leafhoppers and planthoppers that are preyed upon in rice fields are the credit of tarantulas. The kusama black spider is a natural enemy of many pests. A small black spider can prey on 150 second-instar cotton bollworms per day, using a certain number of herds to control planthoppers and leafhoppers, and the results are immediate! According to survey statistics, there are more than 150 kinds of spiders in China's cotton fields, and the population accounts for 50% of the total number of predatory predators in cotton fields. There are about 90 species of rice field spiders, accounting for 60% to 80% of the total number of predatory predators in rice fields. Almost all pests that harm rice are "apprehended" by corresponding spiders. The nomadic tarantula likes to patrol the surface of the water, preying on planthoppers that harm the roots of rice; jumping spiders lurk on the back of rice leaves and grab leafhoppers; small black spiders are mysterious and multi-terminal, blocking both ends of the buds, spewing out venom, anesthetizing the rice bracts that live deep in them, sucking up the body fluids and abandoning the corpses... The space cooperation of the settled spider is more ingenious, the Xiao spider knots the horizontal web, the round spider hangs the vertical web, and the eight-spotted spider pulls the web, which is really "the sky web is restored, and the omission is not leaked"!
After figuring out the tactics of "sea, land and air" and "three-dimensional warfare" of rice field spiders, people cleverly borrowed millions of spider soldiers in exchange for the fragrance of mountains and rivers. Walking into the ten thousand rice fields on the shore of Dongting Lake, there is a natural and peaceful atmosphere everywhere: golden and heavy rice ears you squeeze me to rub; pull out the rice bushes, cobwebs layer by layer, silver wire flashing, various spiders of different shapes parade between rice plants, crouching and attacking, full of vitality. Protecting spiders and insects has embarked on a successful path of biological control.
The webs woven by spiders are of different sizes and shapes, and there are thousands of shapes, such as cages, sheds, bells, and hammocks. There are circular nets, as well as rectangular and triangular nets. Cobwebs are marvelous natural works of art, and researchers have discovered new scientific wonders through crystalline spider silk.
The wheel-shaped web that is often seen in the garden and among the trees is a masterpiece of the round spider. The circular mesh consists of dry and wet wires: the outer edge of the net is a dry wire and a radial radius line, which is not sticky, fixed and supports the hunting net. A small area in the center of the cobweb is also made up of dry silk, which is where the spider rests. The spirals on the mesh frame are wet wires, which are both highly viscous and extremely elastic, which is the main part of the prey. The dry wire has little elasticity and breaks when the length increases by 20%. The wet wire is elastic and can still be restored to its original state by increasing its length by 3 times. With the help of electron microscopy, scientists have solved the mystery: wet silk is not a single spider silk, it is covered with fine bead-like viscous liquid hydroxylate, which has strong hydrophilicity, easily absorbs moisture in the air, maintains strong adhesion for a long time, and continuously provides the source of life for spiders in arid areas - water.
Nature's insatiable teachings give people profound inspiration. Robert Sumanruer, a Canadian fog physics expert, invented the "fog interception water" technology, and arid areas facing the threat of water shortages have revealed a new glimmer of life. In the village of Chuengongguo in northern Chile, there are 320 people in 100 households, bordering the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Atacama Desert to the north, with less than 400 mm of annual precipitation. The special geographical location makes the cold and humid air flow of the Pacific Ocean blend with the high temperature air flow over the desert for four seasons, forming a foggy climate characteristic. However, these dense fogs rich in moisture are not conducive to the dry vast land, and the strong sunlight during the day makes the fog evaporate quickly, and people think about it from time to time while looking at the fog. With the support of the Chilean government, the people of Chuengongguo Village introduced a new technology for cutting fog and taking water.
Made of polypropylene and absorbent fibers modeled on the fine web woven from cobwebs, the selected fog section is arranged into a net array, the thick fog through the middle is repeatedly intercepted, after the absorbent fiber is soaked with water, the water droplets converge from top to bottom into the flow trough of the lower edge of the net, which becomes a new water source after filtering and purification, with an average of 10580 liters of water per day, and each villager can get 120 liters of domestic water. Coinciding with the foggy season, the daily water supply reached 131,000 liters, which not only met the needs of life, but also grew beautiful flowers and green vegetables that had not been seen in a hundred years in the rubble and dusty garden of the past.
Spider silk, which is liquid in the spider's body, becomes silk outside the body. In the vast expanse of tropical rainforest, people often catch a glimpse of a golden-eyed spider covered in brilliant color spots busily weaving webs. Randy Lewis, a biologist at the University of Wyoming in the United States, found that the golden-eyed spider can secrete 7 different kinds of silk at the same time, "spit" silk up to 3 times a week, and can produce 91 meters of silk once. Each silk in a spider web is made up of 20 thinner silks. Spider silk is very thin and light, a spider web with a diameter of 50 cm, weighing only 2 to 3 milligrams. But spider silk also has incredible strength and elasticity, compared to the same thickness of steel wire, spider silk can withstand 5 times the weight of steel wire! Spider silk is also particularly hardy, will break at minus 50 ~ minus 60 ° C, is a good and magical multi-functional material, in the material science shining dazzling.
The Protein Polymer Process Company in San Diego, California, USA specializes in the research of spider silk and has achieved remarkable results. They believe that in the near future, spider silk will be used to make heart valves, artificial veins, ligaments and other human implants, effectively serving the medical and health industry. Scientists at the Army Research and Development Engineering Center in Massachusetts found that the rebound force of spider silk is 4 times that of the Kevlar fiber used to make bulletproof clothing, which can play a good buffering effect on the external force of bullets, and is the most ideal material for making bulletproof clothing found so far. Spider silk is also a textile raw material with excellent performance, with structured, lightweight, firm, durable, good breathability and other properties, will shine in aerospace, weapons, automobiles and other fields.
However, spiders in nature are scattered in different corners, and the silk produced is difficult to collect, limiting application and development.
With the continuous leap in the understanding of spider silk, the biotechnology related to the development and production of spider silk has developed rapidly. Researchers at the University of Wyoming in the United States identified two key proteins in spider silk and had E. coli produce a protein called spiderroin. In recent years, bacteria that can produce spider silk have been cultivated, and the protein produced is the same as that of spider silk, which can be pulled into spider silk. The use of genetic engineering to make silkworms spit spider silk also successful. The spider silk spit out by the silkworm has a fracture strength of 10 times greater than that of the silk, and the elastic rate reaches 35%.
Li Shizhen once recorded in the "Compendium of Materia Medica" that spider medicine can treat ulcers, prolapse, sores and other diseases. Spiders are poisonous insects, in China's 66 taxonomic families, in addition to two families, the rest of the species of spiders are poisonous glands, the front catheter opens at the front of the claws, is a wonderful weapon for predators and enemies. Like scorpions and bees, does the spider's venom have medicinal value? The dedicated research and persistent exploration of many people of insight have created a precedent for spider poisoning.
Dr. Jackson of Salt Lake City Natural Products Company said: Through the experimental identification of hundreds of spider venoms, a new compound - glutamate adversarant was found, which is an important component in the development of new drugs for the prevention and treatment of cerebral hemorrhage, epilepsy and tumors. The human brain is a complex of highly polymerized cells, and each cell relies on neurotransmitters such as glutamate to interconnect and transmit information. Once intracerebral hemorrhage occurs, the glutamate content in the skull increases sharply, and when its concentration reaches the dangerous limit, nerve cells die from poisoning. Glutamate adversaries can inactivate over-limit glutamate and have been experimentally validated.
The China Anti-Aging Research Center adopts a unique purification method to incorporate fresh spider venom into medicine and develop new drugs for clinical efficacy. Arachnoid venom has the effect of softening blood vessels, increasing the blood supply capacity of the brain, improving the activity of brain cells, etc., suitable for cerebral arteriosclerosis, stroke sequelae, etc., can improve blood circulation around the tumor, so that the therapeutic drug on the basis of lifting the microcirculation disorder, directly hit the cancer cells, play a better curative effect. Spider poison into the medicine to cure stubborn diseases, the first dawn.