Silk from the Spider’s Abdomen

Inside a spider’s abdomen, silk is kept as a liquid in small sacs. The spider squeezes that liquid through tiny nozzles, and it comes out as a thin solid thread.

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Age 11: open this week

In the picture

A silk gland: a sac holding silk as a liquid
A narrow duct: the tube that carries the liquid silk
A spinneret: the tiny nozzle where the liquid leaves the body
The drawn thread: silk that has set into a solid strand

Examples

A tube of toothpaste squeezed into a thin line
A glue gun pushing out a thread of glue that hardens as it cools

Key takeaways

Spiders store silk as a fluid and shape it into thread outside the body.
A spider has several nozzles, so it can make more than one thread at a time.

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