Unlike the other four species, we found that neither protein feeding nor deprivation effected the amino acid compositions, nanostructures, or mechanical properties of L. hasselti’s MA silk. A similar lack of variability in MA silk structure and mechanical properties was found in L. hasselti collected at different times of year . Spiders of the genus Latrodectus use MA silk within their three-dimensional cobwebs as structural supports , whereas the orb web building spiders use MA silks within webs to absorb the impact of flying prey . A testable hypothesis might accordingly be that orb web spider MA silks have a greater inherent variability in order to adjust the functionality of the orb web  and this variability is triggered by changes in nutrient uptake. The MA silks of cobweb spiders on the other hand do not require such property variability so are not so sensitive to changes in nutrient uptake. Our gene expression and amino acid composition analyses alluded to the possibility of the expression of multiple spidroins in L. hasselti, as has been found in L. hesperus . The differential expression of a multitude of spidroins might thus be a mechanism by which cobweb building spiders maintain silk property homeostasis across variable nutritional environments.