Spiders
HOW DID SPIDERS GET THEIR NAME? Over 700 different kinds of spiders live in Florida. The scientific name for spiders is “Arachnid”
(uh-rack-nid). That name comes from an old
Greek story. In this story, a girl named
Arachne (uh-rak-nee) loved to weave. Her
weaving was so beautiful and perfect that the goddess Athena got jealous. To punish Arachne, the goddess turned her into a
spider. But Arachne still loved to weave, even
though she was a spider.
WHAT DO SPIDERS LOOK LIKE? Spiders have a head and an
abdomen (belly).
They have 8 legs and up to 8 eyes. Spiders
have tiny hairs and claws on their legs that help them feel when a bug is in their web. The little claws also help to cut the silk when
they are weaving their web. Spiders come in
many colors, from clear to yellow to green to black. Female
spiders are much bigger than male spiders. Females
will live for about a year. (Daddy-Long-Legs
are not spiders because they don’t have a distinct head and a body. They just have one little circle with everything on
it, and 8 legs sticking off. True insects,
like ants, have three body parts: head,
abdomen, and thorax [chest].)
BABY
SPIDERS Baby spiders are called spiderlings. Several babies are born from eggs in an egg sack. After hatching, a baby may “balloon” or
shoot out a strand of silk that helps it float away on a breeze. Other kinds of spiderlings ride on their mother’s
back. Baby spiders have no color. This helps them hide from predators, like frogs,
lizards, birds, and ants.
HOW ARE SPIDERS HELPFUL?
Even though they can bite, spiders are very
helpful, eating more insects than birds do. Spiders
don’t see very well. If you stand more
than a foot away, most can’t even see you. If
a spider gets on you, the only thing it wants to do is get off. Don’t squash it; just scoot it off. It may eat the bug that was going to bite you
tomorrow!
HOW DO SPIDERS MAKE WEBS? The
spiders that weave webs use silk to do
this. They make the silk out of their own
bodies and jump from tree branch to tree branch to make their web. Each kind of spider makes a different kind of web. Some of the strands in the web are sticky, to catch
bugs, but some are dry. The spider walks on
the dry strands so she doesn’t get stuck. The
spider usually waits in the center of the web, with one of her legs touching a strand. If she feels the strands jiggle, she goes to find
the bug that is caught in the web. If it is
just a leaf, or a really big bug that could tear up the web, the spider will cut the
strands holding it, so it will fall out of the web. If
she needs to rebuild a web, she will eat the broken web pieces and digest them. This helps her make more new silk. Nothing is wasted.
(Spider webs are so strong that some native peoples twist the webs to make
fishing nets. Others use the web for
Band-aids.)
HOW DO SPIDERS EAT? Spiders don’t chew
their food. When they get to the bug in their web, they bite it and inject venom. The
venom either paralyzes or kills the bug. Then the venom turns the bug’s insides into
liquid. While the venom is working, the spider wraps the bug in silk. She may drink the
liquid then, or tie the little silk bundle to her web so she can snack later. Most spiders
have venom. Lucky for us, only two main spiders have venom dangerous to people: the Black
Widow and Brown Recluse. If you are bitten by a spider, always tell a grown-up as soon as
possible. Click here to go to our Venomous Creatures page to learn about dangerous
spiders.
To see a Black Widow
Spider in her web, click here.
RESOURCES:
Levi, Herbert W. A Golden Guide to Spiders and Their Kin. Wisconson:
Western Publishing Company, Inc., 1990.
Smith, Francia. Come Into My Parlor, League of Environmental Educators of Florida (LEEF)
Conference, March 1996, Ellenton, Florida.
Provided by the Pelotes Island Nature Preserve
http://pelotes.jea.com
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