Tarantulas Secrete Silk From Feet

A zebra tarantula.
Image: www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~dzs/

As reported in the September 28 Nature, researchers have discovered that zebra tarantulas secrete silk not just from their spinnerets, but from their feet as well, allowing them to cling onto surfaces better. Spiders had only been known to secrete silk from their abdomen to create webs. This newly discovered location and function for silk secretion may change scientists' current understanding of how and why the ability to spin silk evolved in spiders.

—Read more at Eurekalert.org