Fig 3.

Evaluation of the New Zealand species A. luminosa indicates that A) the larva in the Spellbound Cave produce fewer threads (mean 30 per nest) in relation to those from Hollow Hill cave (mean 64 per nest) or the pupae (mean 90 per nest) from Hollow Hill. B) Droplets attached to glass slides have a greater length than width and vary between individuals, e.g. 1185x785 μm (length x width) in animal 1and 723x554 μm in animal 2.C) The hammock (excluding threads and larva) from animals in the Spellbound Cave with a mean weight of 14.86 mg. Weight measurements with samples from the Hollow Hill cave could not be performed, as it is forbidden to remove a larva from its nest. D) Threads taken from the nest are much heavier (in mean 1.844 mg/thread) in the Spellbound Cave than those from Hollow Hill (1.36 mg) or produced by the pupae (1.47 mg). E) On average, the larva produce around 8 droplets per cm thread length, with F) a estimated weight of 27.21 μg for the normal droplet and almost 44 μg for the final droplet at the thread tip.