Hello ,

Silk production, known as sericulture, is what makes silk fabric so expensive. Although it is widely known that silkworms (Bombyx mori) are used to produce the silk that is used to make fabrics from, many other insects and invertebrates also make silk for their lives.

The common ones we know like spiders and many of the moths and butterflies, usually either spin silk from their mouthparts and gland around the mouth, or from posteriol silk glands.

The past week, however, I have found another, very interesting and strange species belonging to an order of insects that’s a new order for my life list! Embioptera! More commonly known as Footspinners!

Why are they called footspinners? Since they are the only insects that have specially adapted front tarsi (insect feet) with which they spin silk from! These tiny strange looking insects live in small tunnels that they spin under bark, leaf litter and fallen trees, where they feed on plant litter, bark, moss, algae, and lichens.

The males are special, they are the only ones who will develop wings and fly to nearby colonies to mate with females, while females will never develop wings and will remain with or near to her parental colony. An interesting fact about the males’ wings is that they are unique to Embioptera in the animal kingdom. The male can inflate his wings with simple hydraulics, by pumping in haemolymph into the veins to strengthen the wings for flight. Upon landing the male will deflate his wings and they become soft and flexible folding against his body to allow him to manoeuvre around in the silk tunnels. The wings also have a fold down the centre that allows them to fold forward over the male. This allows the male to run backwards quickly, just like the females and immatures are able to retreat backwards in a tunnel if there is any threat. Another interesting fact, the Males are incapable of eating once they reach maturity.

The male footspinner I found marks the 24th insect order out of 26 that is present in Southern Africa that I have personally collected. It would’ve been 25 out of 27 but the order Mantophasmantodea, or heelwalkers has been added into the Orthoptera or Crickets and Grasshoppers order recently. With the last two insect orders that I am still to find, one will require an immense amount of luck to find, while the other will require an intricately planned expedition with exact calculations to find.

Have you ever known that something as strange as Embioptera exists? Knowing that Embioptera exists are you intrigued to learn more about insects, and what is the most interesting thing about Embioptera for you and why?

If you would like to send me a message with your answers, feel free to do so on Instagram @abugmanslife or via email to [email protected].

Weekly Top Shots: The Footspinner!