Spinning Goblin Spider: Stenoops peckorum

Wednesday, May 11 9:13 am

Stenoops peckorum, a newly discovered species of goblin spider from southern Florida, hunts its prey instead of catching it in its web. Photo: © AMNH

This posterior lateral spinneret, a silk-spinning organ of a spider, features frond-like setae and whorls of exoskeleton. It belongs to a female Stenoops peckorum, a newly discovered species of goblin spider from southern Florida.

This species was among 17 new species of goblin spider discovered in 2010 by Norman Platnick, the Peter J. Solomon Family curator emeritus in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History.

Despite their fearsome name, goblin spiders are tiny. They tend to be less than 2 millimeters in length. The spinneret pictured above is approximately 30 micrometers across, roughly the diameter of a thin strand of hair.

The five protrusions at the center of the spinneret are spigots that produce a single type of spider silk. The silk, sometimes in combination with silk from other spinnerets, can be used in any number of ways, including reproduction or navigation, but not for a conventional prey-trapping spider web.

“All spiders do make silk, they just don’t always use it to catch food,” says Platnick. Instead, goblin spiders hunt down and devour whatever small insects they can catch. Read more »

Golden-Colored Spider Silk On Display Through October 3

Friday, September 03 8:57 am

Spider Silk. Credit: AMNH\R. Mickens

Time is running out to view what took four years, some 80 people, and over one million golden orb spiders from Madagascar to create: an 11-by-4 foot, naturally golden-hued textile on display in the Museum through October 3.

For more than 100 years, people have tried to extract silk from spiders, but the spectacular, rare fabric showcased in the Museum Grand Gallery is the only surviving textile made out of the silk of these hairy, eight-legged creatures.

“I was blown away by its wonderful, lustrous, golden color,” says Museum Curator Ian Tattersall. “Only one other spider silk textile was ever exhibited, in Paris around 1900, and that has subsequently been lost, so this is unique in the world” (To hear more from Dr. Tattersall on the spider silk exhibit, go here).

Golden orb spiders—the largest of which can grow to the size of a human hand—produce golden-hued silk that is stronger than steel but is conveniently elastic and lightweight. Because of these rare properties, people have envisioned potential applications for spider silk in battle, surgery, and space exploration, among other fields. But unlike silkworms, which can be easily farmed to produce mass quantities of silk, golden orb spiders are cannibalistic in nature, making them difficult to hold in close quarters and to extract silk filament in big quantities.

Despite the obstacles, American fashion designer Nicholas Godley teamed up with art historian and textile expert Simon Peers to build a complex spider silk harvesting operation in Madagascar. The pair hired locals, who collected over 3,000 spiders per day by using long bamboo sticks to tear down the spiders’ golden-colored webs, which can span the length of a one-lane road. Read more »

Rare Spider Silk on Exhibit

Thursday, September 24 2:39 pm

A spectacular and extremely rare textile, woven from golden-colored silk thread produced by more than one million spiders in Madagascar is now on display at the American Museum of Natural History in the Grand Gallery.

Drawing on the legacy of a French missionary, Jacob Paul Camboué, this contemporary textile measures 11 feet by 4 feet and took four years to make using a painstaking technique.

Hear from Dr. Ian Tattersall, Curator, Division of Anthropology at AMNH, as well as Nicholas Godley, co-creator and owner of the silk along with his partner Simon Peers as they discuss this rare work.

NYTimes Spotlights Spider Silk

Tuesday, September 22 2:20 pm

New York Times reporter Randy Kennedy covered the Spider Silk now on display at AMNH:

For anyone considering going into the business of manufacturing traditional textiles using the filaments extracted from the spinnerets of the golden orb spider of Madagascar, here are a few guidelines to keep in mind:

The largest spiders, the females, can grow to about the size of a small adult human hand, with hairy stiletto legs and the ability to eat large, flying insects…

Continue reading the New York Times story published on September 22, 2009.