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- Spiders are ARACHNIDS
with jointed legs and exoskeletons.
- Spiders have eight (8) legs, two body parts, and no wings or
antennae. Insects have six (6) legs, three body parts, wings and
antennae.
- The cephalothoarax contains the mouth, eyes, jaws, pedipalps
and leg attachment. The abdomen holds the spinnerets.
- Spiders fall in 4 groups for their basic kind of prey catching:
webbuilders, wanderers, waiters and water. Some spiders catch
prey in webs, some chase prey, some wait for prey and jump on
them and some trap a bubble of air and go underwater to trap prey.
- All spiders make silk, but not all spiders make webs. Silk is
used for weaving webs, ballooning, draglines, egg cases, lining
nests, wrapping prey and sensing enemies.
- Webs come in many shapes: orbs, funnel, sheet, triangle, dome,
mesh and tangle.
- Spiderlings hatch out of eggs. They molt several times as they
grow to adult size.
- Spiders are an important part of the food chain. They control
insect population and they provide food for other animals.
- Spiders are found worldwide. They are important and fascinating
to many cultures. They are feared and disliked by many individuals.
- All spiders in America are venomous, but very few of them are
dangerous. The dangerous spiders are the Black Widow, Brown Widow,
Red Widow, Brown Recluse and the sac spiders.
- Enemies of spiders are humans, weather, frogs, toads, lizards,
birds, shrews, hunting beetles, ants, wasps and fungus.
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