The large wandering spider bites forever
The fangs of the large wandering spider (Cupiennius salei) are incisively shaped, right to the tip. The spider uses its curved fang to grasp its prey, punctures its chitinous armour and injects venom into the victim. As a research team from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam-Golm and the University of Vienna have established, the shape and structure of the fangs have evolved extremely well to perform its lethal task multiple times over the spider's lifetime, as reliably as possible and with the minimum amount of damage. For the first time, the researchers analysed in detail the correlation between the structure and the mechanical properties of the fang and compared it with other potential configurations. This also provided starting points for investigating how bio-inspired injection equipment in medicine and technology can be improved.