[grey_whiskers]

If that was the first step (no pun intended), from there evolution would have driven the stepwise improvement of the sticky substance itself, its applications, the behaviors which drove how it was used, etc., until much later it was suitable for creating "suspension bridges", traps, wrappers, etc.

That part sounds a bit hazy on the details, Ich. Kind of hand-waving.

Begin segue.

Speaking of hand-waving...

End segue.

Are there any species of spiders or closely related critters who "spin a web" and then lasso or similarly throw it over their prey? Might be a nice transitional between leg-silk and posterior silk.

Cheers!

[djf]

I saw something remarkable at a motel once. It was spring, and there were tons of bugs flying around. It looked like one bug was flying very slowly up towards the roof.

It was stuck to a line of silk, like a fishing line. There was about six or seven of these long loose silk threads hanging down to where the bugs were flying (which was right near a light).

The spiders were steelheading!!

I knew for sure it wasn't an accident when a second bug got stuck in a line and whatever kind of spider was up there started hauling it up.