- Spiders construct webs, miraculously beautiful, glistening like polished
platinum, a masterpiece of art with a 'come hither' charm.
- There can be up to nearly 5 million spiders per hectare.
- Spiders have 48 "knees": 8 legs with 6 joints on each.
- Spiders have eight eyes, eight legs, two body parts, outside skeletons,
and fangs.
- They do not have antennas or wings.
- Males are smaller than the females.
- The spider begins spinning its web in the evening or early morning
before the flying insects get air-borne.
- There are at least 37,000 known species of spiders in the world and
approximately 700 species live in Florida.
- Spiders are invertebrates, arthropods and ARACHNIDS.
- Spiders have 2 body parts, a cephalothorax and abdomen.
- Spiders have 8 legs attached to the cephalothorax.
- Most spiders have poor eyesight even with 8 eyes. Some spiders may
only have 2,4, or 6 eyes.
- Spiders as a group eat more insects than birds.
- Most female spiders live a year or two, but female tarantulas may
live for 25 years. Most male spiders live 4-5 months except the male
tarantula. They may live for 4-10 years.
- All spiders make silk, but not all spiders make webs. Some silk is
sticky, some is dry. Silk is made in the abdomen and squirted from the
spinnerets. Spiders have six spinnerets. Some spiders can make seven
different kinds of silk.
- Most all spiders are poisonous and some authorities say all spiders
are poisonous, but only a few spiders have venom and fangs strong enough
to be harmful to humans.
- A spider does not chew its food. It bites its prey and the venom injected
into the prey paralyzes or kills it prey. The digestive effect of the
venom turns the tissue of the prey into a liquid which is then sucked
up into the spider's stomach. Spiders are able to turn insects into
a kind of soup as they are only able to eat liquids.
- Spider legs are covered with hairs that serve as sense organs. The
hairs pick up vibrations and smells from the air. Spiders have at least
2 claws at the end of each leg. These claws allow them to climb glass.
Web builders have 3 tiny claws at the end of each leg and they hang
onto their web with the middle claw.
- Spiders are carnivorous predators.
- Enemies of spiders are: humans, weather, frogs, toads, lizards, birds,
shrews, hunting beetles, ants, centipedes, parasitic flies, wasps, fungus
and other spiders.
- Most spiders have a patterned abdomen.
- Baby spiders are colorless.
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