Career Guidance for Children who want to work with Animals
Spider Facts and Taxonomy
Lesson 2
OBJECTIVES:
This Lesson helps you learn about:
- Spider Etymology
- Spider Facts
- Spider Taxonomy
- Classification and Species
Spider Etymology
Definitions
Etymology is the study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history
Meaning and Origin of the Word
- Spiders are eight legged arthropods with two body segments, Pedipalps, fangs and can spin silk.
- The name “spider” finds its early origin in the German word “spinne”.
- Immature or young spiders are called spiderlings or the more common slang of “slings”.
- The scientific grouping for spiders is called “Araneae”
Name in other Languages
- Afrikaans = spinnekop
- Arabic = العنكبوت (aleankabut)
- Chinese = 蜘蛛 (Zhizhi)
- French = araignee
- German = spinne
- Hebrew = עַכָּבִישׁ
- Russian = паук (pauk)
- Spanish = arana
Spider Facts
Origins
Spiders probably evolved about 400 million years ago from thick-waisted arachnid ancestors.
Habitat
Spiders live in almost every habitat on earth. The only places where there are no spiders are the polar regions, the highest mountains and the oceans.
Average Size
Range in size from the Patu digua (from Colombia) with a body length of 0.37 millimeters (0.014 inches), to the Giant Huntsman Spider with a leg span of up to 30 centimeters (12 inches).
Average Lifespan
Generally between 1 and 25 years, but the oldest spider ever recorded was a female trapdoor tarantula from Australia that died at 43 years old!
Average Offspring
Spiders are Oviparous, which means their young come from eggs which are packed into silk bundles called egg sacs. Spiders will lay between 2 and 1000 eggs.
Incubation
Roughly between a week or three, depending on species.
Population
A rough estimate has placed the world's spider population at 21 quadrillion. This means that there are on average 2.8 million spiders for every human being on the planet!
Speed
Up to 2.5 meters per second (1.73 feet per second)
Activity Time
Mostly Nocturnal
Main Diet
Most spiders are carnivorous, eating insects such as ants, flies, mosquitoes, and bees, spiders will also eat very small animals like birds, frogs, lizards, and centipedes. Many will also eat other spiders! With the estimated amount of spiders in the world, it is possible that they consume about 400 million and 800 million tons of Prey every year!
Spider Taxonomy
Classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Family: 120
Genus: 4,100 +
Species: 48,000 +
Scientists classify all living creatures, from the more overall or broad groupings, down to individual species. This is done to assist scientists when they study specific species and to effectively communicate their findings.
In this way spiders are broadly classified as animals (Animalia) without any internal backbone (invertebrate) and posessing an exoskeleton (Arthropoda).
The Arthropoda is extremely divverse, which means that spiders need to be further divided and grouped into a Class called Arachnida, which contains all of the invertebrates with amongst other characteristics, eight legs.
Spiders share this Class with several other types of Arachnids, so they need to be further classified into their own Order, called the Araneae.
Spiders are then further divided into two suborders, Mesothelae and Opisthothelae, of which the latter contains two infraorders, Mygalomorphae and Araneomorphae.
Species
Mesothelae = 1 Family, 8 Genera, 116 Species
Mygalomorphae = 20 Families, 350 Genera, 2,900 Species
Araneomorphae = 96 Families, 3,700 Genera, 44,000 + Species
Sources Used:
END OF COURSE
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