Animal facts for kids

The web is the spider’s trap. She begins spinning in the evening or early in the morning, before day-flying insects are airborne. Web-building spiders have glands in their abdomens that produce liquid silk. Each gland has a tube to the outside of the hind end of the spider called a “spinneret.” She will press the spinnerets against some object, adhering the liquid silk to it. As she moves away, a silken thread forms and as she ejects more of this substance, web construction begins.

Some spiders will allow the wind to blow loose ends of web lines across open spaces where they adhere to twigs or leaves. Then the web is built around the web lines. Other spiders, hanging on to the web line, let a breeze swing them several inches across a space to a twig, where they attach the thread, then drop down to another twig to repeat the procedure. After the rope bridge is created, the spider will run to and fro across it, building the web. In as little as 40 minutes to a few hours, depending on the species of spider and the complexity of the web design, a lace-patterned snare is created, entangling any insect that flies into it. (Each kind of spider knows how to spin a certain pattern of web as soon as it hatches from its egg sac.)

The common garden spiders or other orb weaver spiders make the most elaborate webs. Some strands of the web are sticky so the prey cannot get loose. Most spiders have poor eyesight and it is believed that they cannot hear or smell. However, they make up for this lack by a remarkable sense of touch that is located in their body hairs and feelers. When an insect flies into the web, the vibrations of the threads tell the spider that something is caught and it darts out from where it is hiding to get the victim.

Spider silk is a strong, elastic protein of many uses. Spiders can produce different kinds of threads from their spinnerets: a sticky thread and a dry thread to make webs (the thread can be thin or thick depending on its use in the web); a thread that binds a victim; and a special thread to wrap and protect the spider’s eggs.

In the past, there was speculation that spider silk would someday be used commercially for weaving the silk into silken material. This hope has never been realized because spiders cannot be mass-reared. When they are confined together, they eat each other!

FAMILY: Araneidae

Scorpions eat slowly, tearing and crushing their victim and then extracting its body juices. Hunting by night and depending on touch, the prey is seized with large, lobster-like claws. The scorpion will use its poisonous sting on its prey only if there is resistance. Enjoying every sip, the scorpion might take more than an hour to eat one beetle.

If a scorpion does sting, the poison will cause at least some pain. However, there are some species in northern Mexico and northern Africa that inject nerve poisons which could actually cause death.

During the day, most scorpions hide outside, under stones or bark. They get into trouble with humans when they wander into homes where their favorite hideouts are in shoes, or between bed linen and under carpets.

So crawling into bed or putting one’s shoes on in scorpion country can be quite dangerous.

These unusual arachnids are born alive, a few at a time, over a period of a few weeks. The babies ride on their mother’s back until they molt their skins for the first time. After that, they live alone, showing hostility to all creatures–including other scorpions.

FAMILY: Bothriuridae

GENUS: Bothriurus

SPECIES: (Various)

If any spider can be said to be attractive, the jumping spider’s the one. This family of spiders includes the most beautifully patterned, colorful spiders in the world. Many jumping spiders even have a metallic sheen.

Spiders usually have poor vision but not the jumping spider, which has wonderful eyesight. Located on its distinctively box-shaped head are eight eyes: The two eyes in the middle are huge, with four more smaller ones on top, and two small corner eyes. This gives the spider 360-degree vision, or the ability to see all around without turning its head.

Having both excellent vision and the ability to recognize unsuspecting prey from a distance enable these hunting spiders to creep up and stalk their prey like cats. When the spider pounces, it is with amazing accuracy. An insect doesn’t stand much of a chance of escaping from a jumping spider’s poisonous fangs, because this spider can jump sideways and backwards, too.

Tiny jumping spiders can leap up to 40 times their own body length due to their short, strong rear legs. However, when jumping, they always leave an anchored drag line as a safety rope behind them. This acts much the way a mountaineer’s rope does. If a jumping spider spots an insect from a branch, it will leap through the air like a dare-devil circus performer, seize its victim and scurry back up the silk line. If the prey is missed, the line makes it possible to quickly return back to the original jumping spot.

When the male jumping spider comes courting, he does a colorful little dance. First, he waves his brightly colored first legs at the female, wags his abdomen, and then hops around. Often, the dance winds up with a series of brilliant whirls. If the female is interested, she waves her colorful legs back, often imitating some of the movements of his dance. But, what if she is bored with his performance? Then it is his last dance–because she will eat him!

FAMILY: Salticidae

GENUS: Salticus