The web made by a spider is a fascinating thing, but spider itself is more amazing in many other respects. It is a peculiar creature found in all seasons and at all places – air, water, land and also inside the earth. Its size varies from that of a small dot to 20 cms. There are some spiders which can live without water for a year. A giant spider called tarantula feeds on birds and can live for as long as 15 years. In February 1985, Charles J. Seiderman of New York City captured a female bird-eating spider near Paramaribo, Surinam, which weighed a record peak of 122.2 grams. Generally most of the spiders live only for one year. The spider has 8 legs and 8 eyes. Its body has only two parts – head and trunk.
The silk that spiders fabricate for making their webs is produced in certain abdominal glands. A liquid in the form of fine thread comes out from a small hole at the top of its abdomen, which solidifies after coming in contact with air. These threads are of various types. Some of them are sticky while some others are dry and soft. The sticky thread helps the spider in catching its prey. As soon as a fly or a small insect touches or falls on the web it gets entrapped in it. Now the question arises: why doesn’t the spider itself get caught in its web?
It is interesting to note that the spider itself does not get trapped in it because it has a kind of oil on its legs. In fact, when the spider moves across the web, it uses the dry-soft threads and is careful to avoid touching the sticky threads with its legs. Even if it did, the oily secretions on its feet would prevent it from sticking and it moves along those threads easily. In England and Wales there are more than 2,000,000 spiders in every acre of meadow land. It has been estimated that in one year the spiders in the country eat a weight of insects that exceeds the total weight of the human population of England and Wales.
The spiders make many kinds of webs. Some of these are wheel-shaped while some are shaped like a funnel. The sticky threads which are meant for trapping the prey are separately located.