Figure 1.

Wavespeed as a function of pre-stress. a) Longitudinal wavespeed (log axis) and b)-d) transverse wavespeed. Theoretical calculations are given by dashed lines, vibrometry data (shown by speaker symbol) by squares, ballistic impact data (shown by bullet symbol) for spider silks at low tensions and 220 m s^–1 by stars and data adapted from Drodge et al.[16] by triangles. Ballistic impact data include standard error of the mean bars, for both wavespeed and pre-stress for spider silks, and wavespeed for nylon and silkworm silk as pre-stress was consistent between repeats. Acoustic measurements do not have error bars as they are all individual samples. Materials: copper beryllium wire (red), silkworm silk (dark green), nylon (orange), Nephila major ampullate (MA) spider silk (big size, black; small size, dark grey; small size supercontracted, blue), Nephila minor ampullate (MiA) spider silk (purple), mixture of Nephila silks (2 MA, 2 MiA: cyan), and Araneus spider bundle (2 MA, 2 MiA: green). For b) and c), the grey dashed line gives a reference spider silk theoretical curve.