Life in the Undergrowth

Season 1 Episode 3: The Silk Spinners

Silk is the invertebrates' great invention, used in a range of ways from from the protective stalks of lacewing eggs to the amazing hanging threads of New Zealand's 'glow worms'. Spiders, though, have taken silk-spinning to extremes. The common wolf spider has no web, but the female is a gentle parent, encasing her eggs in silk and carrying the precious bundle wherever she goes. The bolas spider uses a ball of sticky silk soaked in a copy of moth pheromone to lure its prey. Millions of communal spiders live and feed together in a vast, towering web - an arachnophobe's nightmare.

Genre:

Documentary

Seasons:

1

Episodes:

5

Cast:

David Attenborough

Quality:

HD

Duration:

49 min

First Air:

2005

Rating:

8.3