Feared and revered, the object of countless tales, myths and metaphors, the small but deadly spider has travelled throughout the centuries on the back of its reputation – and its 8 little legs.
The spider is an extraordinary and misunderstood creature that has both ignited the imagination of Man and instilled fear.
Here are some facts about spiders that will leave you in awe.
Move That Body
Spiders are arachnids, not insects. The arachnid family includes scorpions, mites, ticks and harvestmen.
The differences between arachnids and insects are mostly anatomical.
In nature's grand design, was it mere coincidence or deliberate intent that led to such striking differences between insects and arachnids?
Arachnids have 8 legs, insects 6; an insect’s body is comprised of 3 segments, head, thorax and abdomen, an arachnids of 2, cephalothorax and abdomen; insects have compound eyes, arachnids simple eyes; insects have antennae, arachnids don’t; many insects have wings, arachnids never; insects have mandibles; arachnids have chelicerae (the appendages in front of the mouth of an arachnid, of course); insects undergo some form of metamorphosis; arachnids don’t.
So, is the difference clear?
Spider Police
“If you wish to live and thrive, let the spider run alive.”
Old English Saying
Spiders are natural insecticides. They eat more insects than birds and bats combined, and thus control insect populations.
While bats fly and birds chirp, spiders silently munch away, proving that nature's best pest controllers aren't always in the limelight.
The average spider consumes 2,000 insects a year in a lifetime of 2 years.
Multiply that by a large population of spiders in a given field of crops and you have no need for pesticides. Larger spiders can kill birds, frogs and lizards.
Liquid Dinners
“Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.”
Charles Addams
Spiders can’t digest solids so they turn their prey into liquid using digestive enzymes that they exude onto their victim’s body.
While humans find innovative ways to enjoy food, spiders have been effortlessly turning their meals into smoothies for ages.
The enzymes break down the tissues of the prey and then they suck up the liquefied remains.
Deadly Poison
All spiders are venomous except for one family of spiders called “Uloboridae”.
A spider’s hunting weapon is its venom, which they release from their glands near their fangs, or chelicerae, and paralyze their victim.
The majority of spiders use venom primarily for hunting rather than defense against larger predators.
Deaths from spider bites are extremely rare with only 2 per year worldwide.
That Silky Feeling
All spiders produce silk throughout their short-lived lives, which they use for many purposes: hunting, protecting their offspring, locomotion, shelter and reproduction.
However, not all spiders spin webs because they have no need to. For example, Wolf Spiders stalk and chase their prey, while Jumping Spiders pounce on their prey.
The diversity of spider silk applications paints a portrait of an incredible evolutionary tool.
Spider silk is well known for being elastic and incredibly tough.
The strongest spider silk has tensile strength second only to fuse quartz fibers and five times greater than that of steel of equivalent weight. It’s also five times as impact-resistant as bulletproof Kevlar.
Eat me, Baby
“We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics.”
Bill Vaughan
Male spiders use all means possible, from courtship rituals to elaborate dances, to avoid being eaten by the larger female spider.
Love or dinner? The male spider's courtship is a high-stakes dance on the razor's edge.
Male Orb spiders position themselves at the outer edge of a spider web and pluck a thread to produce a vibration in the hope that the female will recognise them as a suitor before venturing closer.
Artistic Aspirations
A creature of eight legs has ensnared the imaginations of millions; how has the spider woven its way into our cultural tapestry?
Spiders have been the subject of poems (A Noiseless Patient Spider, Walt Whitman, 1868), myths (The Myth of Arachne), children’s stories (Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White, 1952), Vedic philosophy, popular music (The Rolling Stones, No Doubt, The Who), in comics and manga, cinema (Spiderman, The Lord of the Rings, etc.), folklore and so much more, and the internet and the World Wide Web evoke the interconnectivity of a spider web, making it one of the most celebrated and inspirational creatures ever.
Respect spiders, the silent weavers of worlds!
So, there we have it, the illustrious and intricate life of spiders, the eight-legged maestros of silk and venom!
Who knew that these tiny architects and acrobats of the animal kingdom, often the stuff of nightmares and horror films, could be such fascinating creatures?
They dance, they weave, they liquefy their dinners, and they even play a crucial role in controlling the insect population, all while being the muses for poets, musicians, and filmmakers. It’s almost as if they’re the unsung heroes of the natural world, silently weaving the threads of our ecosystem and culture.
And when you see a spider, instead of reaching for a shoe, maybe offer a nod of respect to these marvelous, multifaceted creatures.
After all, they’ve been spinning webs and inspiring humans long before the World Wide Web came into existence!
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