SPIDER FACTS AND INFORMATION

Spider Facts and Information.
1- Feeding
2- Habitat
3- Distribution
4- Reproduction
5- Anatomy

The Spider Body
A spider's body is divided into two sections:
1- the abdomen
2- the cephalothorax

The legs, eyes, and mouthparts are all in the cephalothorax. Most spiders have poison glands and fangs in their jaws, which they use to inject poison into insects. The venom paralyzes or kills the prey.
Spiders are not insects as many people wrongly classified.

Spiders belong to a class of animals called arachnids. Most spiders have eight eyes, and they do not have antennae or wings.

1
Cephalothorax

The legs, eyes, and mouthparts are all in the cephalothorax.

1) Cephalothorax (prosoma)
1- legs
2- eyes
3- mouthparts

2
Abdomen

Silk glands called spinnerets located beneath the abdomen.

2) Abdomen (opisthosoma)
1- spinnerets (silk glands)
2- book lungs
3- reproductive system

Spiders have 4 pairs of legs (plus grow a new leg if they lose one) All spiders have four pairs of segmented legs, and can grow a new leg if they lose one.

Young spiders can re-grow their legs if they accidentally lose one. The new leg slowly regrow with each molting However, if it was an adult spider, which has stop molting, it is doubtful he can re-grow his leg. Photo left : This colorful young jumping spider (4.5 mm female) lost her right hind leg. This does not stop her from jumping and hunting, and a new leg will grown back soon

Spinnerets

The finger like silk glands Spiders have 4 to 6 finger like silk glands called spinnerets beneath their abdomen. The silk comes from inside the spider's body as a liquid thicker than water. When a spider wants to make a web, it squeezes the silk out of the two small holes at the back of its body called spinnerets. The moment it hits the air, the silk dries into a line that looks like a long strand of silk.

1- Spiders are arachnids, not insects. Other members of the spider arachnid family include scorpions, mites, ticks and harvestmen.

Spider (Arachnid) 8 Legs A spider (an arachnid) has 8 legs	Dragonfly (Insect) 6 Legs A dragonfly (an insect) has 6 legs

5- An abnormal fear of spiders is called ‘arachnophobia’.

Fear of Spiders
Arachniphobia
is a kind of fear for spiders. If you are afraid of spiders, you have Arachniphobia.

6- Tarantulas are large and often hairy spiders, the biggest species have been known to kill mice, lizards and birds.
But the Tarantulas of Borneo is a small species that hunt only insects such as cockroach.

7- Giant Huntsman spiders have leg-spans of around 30cm (12 in). The largest species Huntsman in Borneo reach 15cm

1- Spiders are arachnids, not insects.

2- Other members of the arachnid family include scorpions, mites, ticks and harvestmen.

3- Spiders have 8 legs while insects have 6.

4- Spiders don’t have antennae while insects do.

5- Spiders are found on every continent of the world except Antarctica.

6- There are around 40000 different species of spider.

7- Most spiders make silk which they use to create spider webs and capture prey.

8- Abandoned spider webs are called cobwebs.

9- Most spiders are harmless to humans but a few spider species, such as the black widow, can bite humans and inject venom. Deaths from spider bites are rare however.

10- An abnormal fear of spiders is called ‘arachnophobia’.

11- Tarantulas are large and often hairy spiders, the biggest species have been known to kill mice, lizards and birds.

12- Most tarantula species pose no threat to humans.

13-The largest specie of tarantula is the Goliath Birdeater.

14- Giant Huntsman spiders have leg-spans of around 30cm (12 in).

Spiders help mankind to control insect population
Spiders are considered humankind's friend because they help keep the insect population in check. Foods of spiders
Spiders eat various other arthropods, sometimes bigger size than themselves. Common prey include flies, bees, grasshoppers, moths and butterflies.

Spiders have natural enemies too !
All animals have natural enemies. Birds, insects such as wasps, snakes, lizards, frogs and fish eat spiders. Sometimes spiders eat each other.
Humans try to destroy spiders because we do not understand how useful they are.

Victim to its own kind An Oxyopes macilentus spider (the orange spider in front) become victim to a hairy Menemerus jumping spider (the big gray spider behind) Though both spider each have 8 eyes. Oxyopes spiders have poorer eye sight when compare to Menemerus spiders who have the largest eyes in proposion.

Victim to wasps Photo left : An moldy and empty dead body case of an un-identified spider spices found in Bukit Gemok, Malaysia. Note the absent of the spider abdomen believed to be consumed by larva of certain wasp species that lays its egg on the spider's back. Some big spiders easily fall prey to a species of wasp that lays its egg on spiders. When the larva hatches, it feeds off the living spider and as a penultimate gesture, causes the spider to spin a final web that has no prey-catching ability but is strongly secured, after which the larva dishes out the coup de grace (by literally sucking the life out of the spider) and pupates in the safety of the web.

Spiders are everywhere

Spiders can live almost anywhere in the world, some like it where it is very humid, and some like it where it is very dry. Some spiders live underground and catch their prey by jumping out at them. Others live in trees and capture their prey in their webs. Others live in our houses. You seen them hanging from the ceiling. Many times a spider's common name tells something about the spider. Garden spider lives in our gardens. Water spider lives near water. A wolf spider run around on the ground.
Some spiders live underground and catch their prey by jumping out at them
Some live in trees and capture their prey in their webs.
Others live in our houses. Hanging from the ceiling or just jumping around on our study desk.

Spiders use color, pattern and texture to camouflage on trees, plants, flowers and rocks.
They use camouflage to hunt for prey and to hide from predators.

Wolf spiders are colored in drab black, brown and gray to blend into their environment. These camouflage colors enable the spiders to surprise their prey while hunting and to hide from predators like hunting wasps. A spider can hide by using its colors and patterns for camouflage to blend in with colors and patterns. Spiders have the colors of dirt, trees, leaves and grass.

Photo above : A female Pardosa laura Wolf Spider 4.5mm

Photo 4 : A pond wolf spider at the water edge.
Photo above : A Pond Wolf Spider Pardosa pseudoannulata female 5.5mm is right in the middle of the photo.

Photo 5 : A male Pardosa laura Wolf Spider 5.5mm looking at you (with its 8 eyes) and watching your every move. Human naked eyes are difficult to spot such small wolf spiders with color and pattern of earth.

The following are close up view of the two actual spiders in above Photo 4 and 5. Both are same family of wolf spider of different species with different living environment. They developed their colors and patterns for camouflage to blend in with colors and patterns of their environment. The Ground Wolf Spider (Photo 5) living on brown earth ground has darker brown color while the Pond Wolf Spider (Photo 4) living beside water developed translucent body.


spider of photo 4 POND WOLF SPIDER Female Color is lighter to match with water environment.	spider of photo 5 GROUND WOLF SPIDER Male Color is darker to match with dark soil ground.

Cribellate spiders (presence of a Cribellum) 1- Uloboridae 2- Psechridae	Ecribellate spiders (absence of a cribellum) 1-Tetragnathidae 2-Nephilidae
Uloboridae Miagrammopes sp BORNEO	Tetragnathidae Mesida sp PRAWN FARM
Psechridae Psechrus borneo	Nephilidae Nephila pilipe
	Pholcidae Crossopriza lyoni

Arachnid	Insects

Arachnid	Insect
Spiders	Mosquito Fly Ant Dragonfly