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Index of Bugs
This is a spider. Spiders are not insects. Spiders are arachnids but belong with the insects in the phylum arthropoda. Spiders have four pairs of legs rather than three pairs as insects do.
There are usually two to three claws, at the end of each of a spider’s legs.
Spiders have two body parts. One part is the head and thorax, called the cephalothorax. The other part is the abdomen.
In front of the mouth, a spider has two chelicerae, each with a fang on it. The fangs inject venom into the prey.
Behind and below the mouth is another pair of mouthparts called pedipalps. They look like legs but act as feelers and are used to taste and crush food prey.
Spiders use spinnerets at the tip of their abdomen to make silk threads.
One of the most common silk uses is the dragline. As some spiders move from place to place, they lay out a thin silk thread behind them. Just like a mountain climber, the spider uses the thread as a safety line. It can quickly backtrack on the line to get to safety. Many female spiders will spin a thick, protective cocoon for their developing eggs and spiderlings.
Spiders use their silk to make many types of webs to trap prey. Some types of webs are hammock webs, sheets of web, purse webs, and orb webs. Orb webs are the perfect trap for flying insects. Orb weaving spiders hide near their web. A silk thread stretches from the web to the spider’s hiding place. When a prey, such as a fly or moth, is caught in the web and struggles, the silk thread vibrates. The spider feels the vibrations and rushes out to catch the prey. It bites and injects poison into the prey through its fangs. Orb web spiders wrap their prey in silk and later suck out the digested juices from the prey’s body.
To learn more about spiders and to see them in action, order the Backyard Bugs DVD.
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