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Embioptera

There are only around 200 species of web-spinners worldwide, divided into 8 families.

Web-spinners are so called because they make silk-lined tunnels and webs under stones, in the soil or in dead wood. The tunnels protect them against predators, such as centipedes. The tunnels also help to maintain the right temperatures and humidity for them to live in.

They spin the silk for their webs and tunnels from glands in a swollen joint of their front legs. No other insects are known to have silk glands in this position.

An illustration of a male _Embia major_.

An illustration of a male Embia major.
A.D. Imms 1913.

Other names for (or types of) Embioptera include:

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