We connected a revolving headframe to an electronic spool. We then attached a 240 mm long x 40 mm wide cardboard strip with six 10 mm x 10 mm square holes punched at 30 mm intervals to the headframe. Double sided sticky tape was stuck onto the cardboard at the border of the holes. A silk thread was pulled over the headframe and stuck to the sticky tape. The headframe was rotated once at 1m min-1 while ensuring the silk traversed all of the square holes and adhered to the pieces of tape. The strip was then removed from the headframe and a drop of water based glue applied at the position where the silk attached to the tape. Another frame of equal size with identically positioned holes punched into it was placed on top. The two strips were squeezed together with forceps ensuring that they were tightly stuck together. We then cut the strip in the regions between the holes perpendicular to the silk thread, thus leaving six 10mm x 10mm frames each holding parts of a single thread of silk. The procedure was repeated for every individual used from each of the five species. Accordingly, 48 frames were collected per treatment per species, i.e. 6 frames x 8 individual threads (see  for details).