Silk spider

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(Zool.) a large spider (Nephila plumipes), native of the Southern United States, remarkable for the large quantity of strong silk it produces and for the great disparity in the sizes of the sexes.

See also: Silk

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by G. & C. Merriam Co.
References in periodicals archive
When it came time for her post-doctoral fellowship, she headed to a lab at the University of Wyoming to participate in cutting edge research about the spider silk gene.
Spider silk components are a source of hope to overcome the current barriers in the development of curative agents with desirable properties.
Like all spiders, tarantulas can produce their own spider silk. Male tarantulas are usually smaller than female ones.
Summary: Washington D.C [USA], Mar 4 (ANI): Spider silk, known as one of the strongest materials for its weight, turns out to have another unusual property.
Summary: TEHRAN (FNA)- Researchers have found that spider silk produces a strong twisting motion when exposed to humidity, and may be usable for future artificial muscles or actuators.
Spider silk company Kraig Biocraft Laboratories Inc (OTCQB:KBLB) reported on Tuesday the launch of a key memorandum of understanding with the Institute of Biotechnology - Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (IoB-VAST) and the Vietnam Sericulture Research Centre (VSRC) for transgenic silkworms in Vietnam.
The silk in a spider's web is five times stronger than a strand of steel that is the same thickness and a web made of strands of spider silk as thick as a pencil could stop a Boeing 747 jumbo jet in flight.
Either way, reams of spider silk covering an Australian town was an unusual and arresting sight.For some, the swathes of spider silk blanketing fields turned landscapes into beautiful snow-like scenes; for arachnophobes, it looked more like a living nightmare.
Spider silk is not only strong, unbelievably elastic, and able to withstand extreme temperature, it is also biodegradable and biocompatible, a fact that's especially important for medical applications
Let's unpack that last discussion point: how does Spider-Man's webbing compare to spider silk? Frankly, the web slinger's sticky stuff seems like pure science fiction, able to propel the superhero between skyscrapers, capture villains and carry a lot of weight--from catching a falling human to holding together an entire bisected ferry (well, almost (5) ).
Instead, researchers borrowed genes from silk spiders and added them to goats, hoping the goat milk will adopt spider silk properties.
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