Cosmophasis micarioides is also known as the peacock jumping spider. You get one guess as to why. This high-contrast hunter is just one of the tens of thousands of individual spider species that keep the Earth's prolific insect populations in check. Some spiders are trappers, some are scavengers, and others are roaming stalkers, but nearly all are keen on the flesh of insects and animals. Feeling brave? Read on to see more of these primordial predators doing what they do best.
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And you probably always thought interior design was a field unique to humans. Argiope bruennichi, commonly known as the wasp spider, is a species of orb weaver. Wasp spiders often build their webs with elaborate decorations, consisting of bold zigzag patterns called stabilimenta. There is a debate among arachnologists as to the primary function of these bright, jagged features. Are they used to lure insects into the web via ultraviolet reflections? Do they help attract mates, or disguise the spider in its perch? It's a design choice more puzzling to science than any shag carpet or taxidermied animal head. Next, see a spider with a truly creepy hunting habit.
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Trapdoor spiders have a unique trapping scheme: Instead of building webs, they dig burrows. Lurking just under the surface for long periods at a time, a trapdoor spider clings to the underside of a hinged earthen lid with the barbs on the ends of the forelegs. When a prey animal wanders past the well-camouflaged door, the spider is ready to dart out and strike.
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While female trapdoor spiders tend to remain close to the nest to hunt and protect their egg sacs and hatchlings, males must wander abroad in search of mates. Mating typically occurs inside the female's burrow. On the next page, check out a spider that sounds like something straight out of a monster movie.
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Spiders don't have teeth or jaws, so they don't eat solid food. They prefer their food liquefied, so it's easy to suck up into their mouth orifices. A spider endemic to the Lake Victoria region of Africa, Evarcha culicivora, also known as the "vampire spider," takes this preference to the next level: It drinks blood -- including human blood. However, it doesn't go directly to the source. The vampire spider specifically hunts mosquitoes that have recently sucked warm blood, and then the spider feeds at leisure on the contents of their stomachs. Click over to the following page to see an infamous basement-dweller that is feared by many Americans.
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True to its name, the brown recluse spider prefers to hide in dark corners and other out-of-the-way retreats. Though it is generally not aggressive and only bites when trapped against skin or otherwise threatened, the brown recluse has gotten a bad reputation for its fang-work, which in the worst cases can cause large, painful lesions of necrotic flesh that take weeks to heal. Brown recluses love to take up residence in human-altered environments like houses and sheds, where they can scavenge for already-dead insects -- their favorite meal -- at their own pace in the dark.
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This striped orb weaver traverses a thread of silk on its web. Almost all spiders produce silk, which is a biological protein made up of a long chain of amino acids. Silk is used in almost every activity essential to a spider's survival, from hunting to trapping to shelter to exploration and mating.
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No, it's not a piece of jewelry your kid made for you out of playdough. This spiny orb weaver is a member of the genus Gasteracantha, which translates to "thorny stomach." Spiny orb weavers wear brightly colored abdominal displays. They can bite humans, but their venom is thought to be harmless. Next, see another mostly harmless spider that tends to get people's attention.
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The huntsman spider is not a species but a family, including many different variations. Though not thought to be particularly dangerous to humans, huntsman spiders are wont to terrify unsuspecting human beings, probably due to their alarmingly huge leg span, speedy movements, and penchant for suddenly crawling out from under curtains and wall-mounted picture frames in Australian homes. These arachnids are also known for finding their way into cars. A note on traffic safety: If you suffer from severe arachnophobia, please remember to check for huntsman spiders under the sun visors before you start driving -- not when you're out in the middle of the freeway.
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Before she was one of Marvel's Avengers, she was a fearsome eight-legged matriarch of the genus Latrodectus. Recognizable by the bulbous black abdomen with a red hourglass on the underside, black widows get their common name from a particular sexual practice they're fond of: Eating their males after mating. Black widows are known for their potent neurotoxic venom and perceived threat to humans. It's true that in relative terms, they are one of the most dangerous spiders in North America, but still, the portion of healthy human bite victims who suffer serious health effects or death is very small.
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Recent research has revealed that male nursery web spiders exhibit an interesting mating habit: They attempt to "pay" for sex, offering a neatly-cocooned "gift" for the female spider. Usually, this gift is a dead insect or some other kind of tasty treat, but cheapskate males sometimes think they can outsmart the dating game by showing up with worthless items wrapped in silk, such as inedible pieces of plant fiber, or the dried husks of dead insects from which the males themselves have already drained all of the delicious fluids. Smooth move, guys. As one might expect, studies show that the females are not too easily impressed. Males who offer terrible gifts get fewer opportunities for mating.
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This is the metaphid jumping spider. Jumping spiders of the family Salticidae are muscular hunters who rely on their strong eyesight and skills at stalking, rather than webs and other traps, to catch their prey. Some jumping spiders can leap around 40 times their body length to nab an insect on the move, which is a pretty impressive show of athleticism. This would be like a 6-foot-tall man jumping 240 feet. Check out another water-friendly spider on the next page.
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Dolomedes plantarius is known as the fen raft spider or the great raft spider. These aquatic hunters can swim along the surface of the water and dive beneath to snatch prey from the depths. Like most spiders, they mainly prey on insects, but some larger specimens are powerful enough to catch and kill small fish. Fen raft spiders are native to a wide swath of Northern Europe, but their populations have become classified by the IUCN as vulnerable due to degradation of natural habitats.
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Misumena vatia is known as the goldenrod spider, named for its ability to change its exterior skin from white to yellow to match the hue of the goldenrod blooms in which it likes to hunt. Check out the next page to see what some seriously determined humans have done with genuine spider silk.
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You wouldn't believe what material this elegant garment is made from. That's right -- this is a one-of-a-kind spider-silk cape, manufactured in Madagascar over the course of four years, with the help of about 1,063,000 generous golden orb spiders, according to American fashion designer Nicholas Godley. They say the silk is both soft and strong, with a slightly "sticky" feel. So it's an impressive feat of design and weaving, but … who, exactly, wants to wear it?
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Aphonopelma chalcodes, also known as the western desert tarantula, is a typical tarantula -- more massive than most spiders, with visibly hairy legs and abdomen. Like most tarantulas, Aphonopelma chalcodes relies on its body hairs for self-defense. When threatened, rather than getting its fangs dirty, this spider attempts brush or shoot its "urticating" hairs into the flesh of the attacker. These hairs are barbed, itchy and highly irritating to inhale, or to get caught in the eyes or skin. Next, take a look at a relative of the black widow.
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The redback spider is a member of the widow spider genus -- Latrodectus. The redback spider takes up residence on the continent of Australia, spinning tangled, inelegant, chaotic-looking webs in sheltered corners of basements and other dry, out-of-the-way nooks. Like their cousins the black widows, redback spiders have powerful neurotoxic venom, and there have been recorded instances of redbacks making meals of large prey, such as lizards and snakes.
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Australia is home to several of the world's most nightmare-inducing critters, and this is surely one of them: the Sydney funnel-web spider. With its shining black exoskeleton, the Sydney funnel-web spider is the Darth Vader of arachnids. These predators live in earthen burrows, where they hide and wait for insects and small animals to crawl across a network of silken trip-wires. When the spider feels a vibration in the wire, it rushes out to seize, bite and fiercely envenomate its victim. Sydney funnel-web spiders are perhaps best known for their aggressive threat display, in which they raise their forelegs off the ground to display their gigantic fangs to the attacker.
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You're looking at a pair of deadly weapons. This is a scanning electron micrograph showing a hyper-magnified view of a spider's chelicerae -- the sharp, fang-like appendages it uses to puncture the skin or exterior shell of another organism and deliver a controlled dose of venom. The chelicerae tend to feature flexible, muscular tissue at the base, and hollow, rigid stabbing mechanisms on the ends. Basically, imagine if you had no teeth, but you did have two fingers with poison-filled hypodermic needles on their tips jutting out of your upper lip. Attractive, no? Check out the next page to see another magnified spider organ.
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This scanning electron micrograph shows a set of arachnid spinnerets. Juvenile spiders use their spinnerets to create gossamer parachutes for dispersal by a process known as "ballooning," while adults use them to spin webs, lay traps, cocoon prey and lower themselves from high places with a quick recovery route. Check out the next page to see the largest spider on the planet.
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By mass, the goliath birdeater (Theraphosa blondi) of the South American rainforest is the largest spider on the books. Just how big is it? Goliath birdeaters can reach leg-spans of about 12 inches (30 centimeters), and the heaviest recorded specimen had a body weight of more than 175 grams. How heavy is that? For the sake of comparison, the Mars candy company's standard-size Snickers bar weighs 57 grams. This is a spider that weighs about the same as three chocolatey, sugar-laden candy bars. It's got about 75 percent as much mass as a roll of quarters. If you dropped this spider off the Empire State Building, the impact could probably kill someone on the sidewalk below. Yet despite its formidable size, experts seem to agree that the spider is not a threat to humans. Thanks for the good news, experts! Nobody believes you.
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Look at those huge eyes! This is an example of the spider family Deinopidae, and a genus commonly known as the "ogre-faced" spiders. The ogre-faced spider takes a cue from lepidopterists and hunts with a net, like the one shown above. To catch its prey, the ogre-faced spider spins a small, dense sheet of silk, waits for prey to approach, and then traps the unsuspecting victim in the adhesive fiber. Dinner is served.
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This is Meta menardi -- a large cave spider that is found in dark, damp hideaways around the world, such as natural caves, tunnels and all manner of deep cracks and crevices. Cave spiders are generally very sensitive to light and are easily driven away from it. They prefer to live, hunt and make their nests in the dark.
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Though the flowered background makes it look quite elegant here, Parasteatoda tepidariorum, commonly known as the American house spider, is a well-known species to many. Pretty much anybody who has lived in the United States has gotten comfortable with some colonies of these guys at one time or another. They are generally non-aggressive neighbors who try to stay out of trouble with gigantic monsters like humans, dogs and cats.
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Though they are sometimes called "daddy long-legs spiders," Opiliones are not true spiders -- but like spiders, ticks and scorpions, they are arachnids. Both these arachnids and the common spider Pholcidae (also sometimes called "daddy long-legs") are hounded by an unfortunate myth that claims they possess the most deadly venom of any spider known. This is completely untrue in both instances, but especially in the case of Opiliones, which don't have venom glands at all. So please -- no need to squash them in self-defense. They're about as dangerous as ladybugs. Check out the next panel to see another so-called "spider" that doesn't really make the cut.
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The giant camel spider, which is also not a real spider, has a fearsome appearance and a sometimes terrifying reputation in North Africa and the Middle East, but don't believe the stories about these creatures overrunning villages and chasing fully-grown humans across the dunes. This desert dweller is a ghastly predator to lizards, insects and other small prey, but it doesn't pose a serious venom threat to humans or other large animals. That said, it does have an eye-opener of a bite, and humans should stay away from them if only for the sake of avoiding a painful puncture wound.
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"What, no hug?" Not to be confused with spider crabs, crab spiders are so-called because their crescent body shapes make them look something like ocean crabs. These spiders of the family Thomisidae tend to rely on camouflage and ambush tactics, often waiting among the petals of blossoming flowers, to secure their unsuspecting meals. Check out the next page to see a speedy crawler at home.
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You may have seen their pale, dusty funnel shelters lining fallen logs, clumps of grass and undisturbed sections of porch railing. From the genus Agelenopsis, grass spiders are classically athletic hunters, the cheetahs of the insect world, running down prey rather than relying on the traps many spiders use.
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And we're back to another interior decorator spider, at rest in her beautiful home -- beautiful, that is, if you're very fond of German Expressionist films, or maybe the Cubist movement. St. Andrew's Cross spiders of the genus Argiope are another species of stabilimenta-producing web-spinners. Stabilimenta aren't the only interesting features of spider webs, however -- check out the next page to learn more.
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You've heard that spider silk is, pound for pound, stronger than steel -- and it's true. Stronger than steel, stronger than Kevlar, spider dragline silk is built to last. So why don't we use it to weave bulletproof vests and cables for suspension bridges? Turns out, even modern industry can't quite replicate natural spider power, and natural spider silk is incredibly difficult to produce in quantities that would be useful to us.
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So it's stronger than steel, but exactly how much stronger? Spider silk is of a much lower density than any heavy metal, but when compared by mass, the white bio-thread is five times stronger than an equal amount of steel.
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So if spider silk is so strong, pound-for-pound, why is it so easy to knock down cobwebs with a straw broom? You forget that you are huge, and natural spider silk is both incredibly thin and very low-density. So much so that if you were to wrap a single thread of spider silk once around the entire planet Earth, that thread would weigh less than 170 grams (6 ounces). Wrap enough of it together, however … and we could probably make a rope to lasso the moon.
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!["What, no hug?" Not to be confused with spider crabs, ...](http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/curiosity-spider-pictures-28.jpg ""What, no hug?" Not to be confused with spider crabs, ...")
