Topic: Caddisflies` underwater silk adhesive might suture wounds

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SALT LAKE CITY, March 1, 2010 – Like silkworm moths, butterflies and spiders, caddisfly larvae spin silk, but they do so underwater instead on dry land. Now, University of Utah researchers have discovered why the fly's silk is sticky when wet and how that may make it valuable as an adhesive tape during surgery.

Silk from caddisfly larvae – known to western fly fishermen as 'rock rollers' – may be useful some day as a medical bioadhesive for sticking to wet tissues, says Russell Stewart, an associate professor of bioengineering and principal author of a new study of the fly silk's chemical and structural properties.

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