Through adaptive radiation, multiple species of Tetragnatha—a genus of orb-weaving spiders—have significantly diversified their web architecture over a relatively short timescale. To investigate whether the material properties of Tetragnatha silk have been similarly affected by this evolutionary process, Angela M. Alicea-Serrano et al. examined the chemical composition of both the radial (non-sticky threads extending from the center) and capture (sticky threads that hold prey) silks that form the web as well as tested the tensile strength and viscosity of samples collected from three Tetragnatha species at two sites in the Hawaiian archipelago. The team found significant interspecies variation in these biomaterials.