Book Review: Eight-Legged Wonders: The Surprising Lives of Spiders by James O'Hanlon

“For me, there’s something fascinating about the little things that scurry around our feet. They are all around us and live incredible and complex lives that go largely unnoticed. Being a scientist is like lifting a veil off a hidden miniature world to discover its secrets.”

In Eight-Legged Wonders: The Surprising Lives of Spiders, James O’Hanlon sets out to overturn people’s fear and disgust of spiders by demonstrating just how amazing they really are. Here are a few of the stories O’Hanlon shares in his book.

Spiders in Disguise

Spiders take on multiple disguises to avoid detection or to ambush their prey. There are spiders that look like bird droppings or the stump of a broken twig. Wrap-around spiders have flattened bodies that curve neatly around a branch and mottled skin the colour of bark or lichen.

There are over 300 species of spiders that look like ants, but if you want to fool an ant, appearance isn’t enough: you have to smell like an ant.“Cosmophasis bitaeniata feeds off larvae of green tree ants, and by using its chemical camouflage it can walk right through the house into the nursery and take babies straight out of the arms of the nursery maids.”

Hunting for Prey

Imagine you’re a jungle-dwelling spider and you’re ready to look for your next meal. Do you head up into the canopy or down into the leaf litter? Do you approach your prey head on or from the rear? Do you attack, wait patiently, or back away? It’s a lot harder than you might think to eat and not be eaten.

“Portia will explore different ways of approaching their prey that will either lead to better capture success or less chance of them becoming prey themselves. This is also dependent on the prey. For example, when hunting something like a daddy-long-legs spider they will sneak through gaps in between their long spindly legs, while something like a house spider requires Portia to sneak around and attack from behind. More often than not Portia will direct their attack toward the head, meaning that the venom acts much more quickly as it immediately comes into contact with the victim’s brain.”

Fishing spiders operate in a very different environment. “During the day, fishing spiders seek shelter along the banks of freshwater streams and lakes, but at night they wander out onto the water’s surface to hunt. Just to be safe, they tether themselves to the shore with a length of dragline silk to stop themselves floating downstream. Under darkness, fishing spiders cannot use their eyes to detect prey. Instead, they have to listen. In the same way that other spiders will listen to vibrations in their web, fishing spiders listen to vibrations and ripples in the water. Here they can catch aquatic insect larvae, or perhaps unlucky insects that have fallen into the water and can’t get out. If they are lucky, they might even come across a small fish or a tadpole.”

Spider Silk

“To spiders, silk is everything. Silk is a sensory tool used to send and receive information. It builds shelters to live in and traps to hunt with. Silk entangles writhing prey and caresses vulnerable eggs. In a way, spiders and their silk are indivisible.”

There are many different kinds of spider silk depending on the species and the way the silk is going to be used. They have up to seven different glands, each of them producing a different kind of silk protein.

Darwin’s bark spiders construct webs that span a river and are up to 82 feet across. Orb webs have strong radial fibres that can absorb the impact of a flying insect, while the spiral threads are sticky, trapping the insect in place.

Courtship & Family Life

Some male spiders have elaborate courtship routines. Tropical wandering spiders live on bromeliads and tap a tune on a leaf to impress a potential mate. “Just as birds have different phrases and motifs in their song repertoires, These spiders can mix it up with up to 50 different vibrational syllables in their courtship songs.”

The abdomen of a male peacock spider features neon colours and bold patterns, all the better to capture a female’s attention. “When he catches sight of a female the male peacock spider fans out his abdomen, lifts it upright and starts an elaborate dance, showcasing its dazzling colors. Male spiders shake their abdomen, wave their legs, jump from side to side, and tap the ground with their feet.”

Female Toxeus magnus spiders lay their eggs and raise their spiderlings in a small silk nest. They even supply their young with milk. “The mother spider secretes a nutritious liquid from a small gland on the underside of her abdomen. Often, she will place little droplets of milk on the walls of the silk nest and the spiderlings will feed from the droplets. Other times, the spiderlings will suckle straight from the mother. As far as we know, T. magnus is the world’s only known lactating spider.”

Conclusion

Why not take James O’Hanlon’s advice. The “next time you find a spider in your house, get up close and have a good look at it. Stick a glass jar over the top and slide some paper underneath so you can turn it over in your hands and check out its shiny fangs and delicate legs. Show it to the family and see if you can find out what type of spider it is by looking it up in a field guide or online.”

Further Information

Spiders: From Crabs and Wolves to Pirates and Paradise [EcoFriendly West]

Six Unexpected Pollinators [EcoFriendly West]

The Chemistry of Spider Webs [McGill]

Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/apmckinlay/27180939045

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