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Three amazing feats of spiders
Halloween time is spider time. Three amazing spider skills you might not have known about.
Spiders are one of the most successful animals that inhabit the Earth. There are about 40,000 known species of spiders, and they live everywhere from tropical rainforests to the Arctic tundra. Most people are familiar with the basic characteristics of spidersthey have eight legs, they can shoot silk out of their abdomen and frequently use it to build elaborate webs, and they prey on insects. Lesser known are these three amazing skills that some spiders have.
1. They can live underwater. The diving bell spider, which can be found in ponds across parts of Europe and Asia, lives its entire life underwater. While these spiders do breathe air, they do so by trapping the air in bubbles that are held in place by an underwater web. These structures were named diving bell webs after the antique bell-shaped equipment that people once used to explore the oceans. The spiders live inside of the bells but dart out into the water to hunt prey. Occasionally, they will travel to the surface of the pond to gather more oxygen to replenish their bells.
2. They can fly over hundreds of miles.
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valerief
(53,235 posts)Ino
(3,366 posts)Warpy
(110,913 posts)They look fuzzy and downright cuddly but max out at the size of a pencil eraser. They're tiny, so tiny a lot of people in Oz have never seen one, brilliant colors and all. In addition, they're jumping spiders that stalk their prey and pounce. Jumping also comes in handy if the male has done his dance for a female who's just not interested--if he doesn't get out of the way fast, she'll eat him. Apparently, they also eat bad dancers.
Solly Mack
(90,740 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Response to Panich52 (Original post)
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