#embioptera

Webspinners are social, living in “galleries”: tunnels of fine silk which they spin from glands on their forelegs. Members of these colonies are often related females and their offspring. Adult males do not feed and die soon after mating. Males of some species have wings and are able to disperse to find mates in other colonies, whereas the females remain near where they were hatched. Newly mated females may vacate the colony and find a new one nearby. Others may emerge to search for a new food source to which the galleries can be extended, but in general, the insects rarely venture from their galleries.

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Although males never eat during their adult stage, they do have mouthparts similar to those of the females. These mouthparts are used to hold onto the female during copulation. In some species, the female eats the male after mating, but even if not, the male does not survive for long after. Follow bestanimal for more Bug Sex Facts.

Embiopterans produce a silk thread similar to that produced by the Domestic Silkmoth caterpillar (Bombyx mori). The silk is produced in spherical secretory glands in the swollen tarsi (lower leg segments) of the forelimbs, and can be produced by both adults and larvae. Unlike Bombyx mori and other silk-producing (and spinning) members of both Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera, which only have one pair of silk glands per individual, some species of embiid are estimated to have up to 300 silk glands: 150 in each forelimb. These glands are linked to a bristle-like cuticular process known as a silk ejector, and their exceedingly high numbers allow individuals to spin large amounts of silk very quickly, creating extensive galleries. Webspinner silk is among the thinnest of all animal silks, being in most species about 90 to 100 nanometres in diameter. The finest of any insect are those of the webspinner Aposthonia gurneyi, averaging about 65 nanometres in diameter.

Webspinners can move both forward and backward within their silken tunnels, as the tunnels are too narrow to allow the insect to turn round. They use their highly sensitive cerci to navigate while moving backwards.