Mary Allen
Spiders are mostly small animals, actually, they are called web spiders. There are about 100,000 species of them. Spiders always have eight legs and two limbs, and insects always have six legs and three limbs. Spiders also have up to eight simple pinpoint eyes. Here, too, they differ from insects, which have two so-called compound eyes.
Spiders are known for their webs. They build nets to catch their prey. The prey is mostly insects that get caught in a spider’s web. The web is made of sticky silk threads that the spider forms with its abdomen. But not all spiders build webs.
After mating, the female spider lays eggs. Sometimes it drags them around in a cocoon until the young hatch. You then have to molt several times. So they strip off their skin because it is also their skeleton and cannot grow with them.
The web spiders from an order in the animal kingdom. Together with scorpions and ticks, they form the class of arachnids. These in turn belong to the phylum Arthropods.
Spider means spider in English. Hence the comic book character of Spider-Man, who can climb as well as a spider. His suit is reminiscent of a spider web.
Are spiders dangerous?
Some spiders are very poisonous: the black widow is well known here. There are different types of black widows, and they are not the most venomous of spiders. Despite this, their bite can be deadly to humans.
There are also very large spiders. The tarantulas grow as big as a whole hand, some species even bigger. But they are mostly harmless, and they don’t exist here, but in the tropics.
Many people are afraid of spiders. Only a few spiders are really dangerous. Maybe people are disgusted by the spiders’ hairy legs or by the many eyes.