Arachnid in Action, Part 2

By Rosemary Conroy on Friday, October 3, 2008.

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Roasemary's not finished with spiders! She explains how they are as varied as they are interesting.

So spiders are so interesting that I needed to give them another two minutes. And even with that, we can only untangle a small amount of what makes these unusual creatures, well — so unusual!

To start, there are 38,000 different species of spiders worldwide. Most scientists believe that’s probably only one-fifth of what’s out there. For comparison, only 4,000 types of mammals roam our planet. In the US, we have about 2,500 different kinds of arachnids. And different is certainly the key word when it comes to spiders.

Now, we’re all familiar with Charlotte and her web, but if she were real, she would represent just one common type – the orb weaver. But there are also spiders that create trapdoor webs, sheet webs, and just random blob webs. Then there are spiders that use their sticky filaments to lasso prey, dive beneath the water, and even take flight. And many other arachnids don’t make webs at all. Of those, the wolf spider actively stalks its prey — much like its mammalian namesakes. The crab spider prefers to wait in ambush, changing its color to match the flower where it waits for passing pollinators.

Spider reproduction is just too complex to cover here, but it’s pretty dazzling in it’s diversity too. Despite their reputation, not all males are killed after sex. Typically, the females only eat the stupid or careless ones. Like I said, they are very interesting animals.

Unfortunately, I’ll have to save tarantulas, daddy-long-legs, and black widows for another time. But if you want learn more about these eight-legged (and don’t forget eight-eyed) wonders, just take a spin — on the world wide web of course.