Top 5 Facts About Spiders

Some people love spiders. Other people hate them. There are many species of spiders and sometimes liking or hating the spiders depends on the species. Of course, it seems that more spider information and decorations appear around Halloween. It is good to know facts about spiders to make these more accurate, even if they are also supposed to be cute.

Here's Lookin' at You . . . or You . . . or You, Kid

Humans can easily say the line, "Here's lookin' at you, kid" and look at one person. However, this might be difficult for spiders. Most spiders have eight eyes. It seems like it would be difficult to focus on one spot with eight eyes, but maybe spiders can do it. Of course, some spiders don't have quite as many eyes.

Spiders Weave Shapes

The most familiar spider web shape is known as the "bicycle wheel." These are the shapes of the webs that are most often seen on cartoons and in Halloween decorations. However, spiders weave webs in different shapes. Orb-web spiders spin bicycle wheel webs. there are spiders that weave webs that start out wide and the top and get narrower at the bottom. These look like flat funnels, so they are called funnel webs. There are also spiders that weave horizontal webs. These webs are known as sheet webs.

Curtsey . . . or Don't

Women can curtsey by bending their knees and bowing, usually with one leg behind the other. However, it would be difficult for a spider to curtsey! Of course, there's the issue of the number of legs, but the fact that spiders have 48 knees would make curtseying difficult! That's six knees on each of the eight legs!

Spiders Don't Eat, They Drink

Spiders don't eat food. They cannot eat solid food. Once a spider catches an insect, it either covers it in digestive juices or inject it with venom. This turns the insides of the insect into liquid or "soup." The spiders then drink this "soup." The outsides of the insects are usually left and the often look just like the insect when it is live.

Miss Muffet Was Real

Little Miss Muffet is a well-known nursery rhyme. What isn't well-known is that Miss Muffet was a real person. Her name was Little Miss Mouffet. It was her father, Dr. Mouffet, that made people think of her and spiders. He thought that if people ate spiders, it could heal them from various diseases. It would not be a surprise if she was afraid of her father making her eat spiders when they were near, so it seemed like she was afraid of the spiders.

Source:

Spider Facts. (n.d.). Kidzone - Fun Facts for Kids!. Retrieved May 13, 2011, from http://www.kidzone.ws/lw/spiders/facts.htm