Interesting facts about arachnids. Class Arachnids: 10 interesting facts

By its frightening and not always pleasant kind of spiders, despite the small size, for the greater half of humanity cause at least dislike. Meanwhile, there are those who keep them as pets, along with hamsters or parrots. Have you thought about how much we know about the representatives of this part of the animal kingdom? We recommend that you learn more about the Arachnids class, including 10 interesting facts about the arachnids that will surprise, and perhaps intrigue you.

The class unites in itself a large group of diverse and completely different from each other arthropods. It includes three branches: scorpions, mites and spiders, total - 114 thousand species, including nearly 2,000 fossils. The second and third groups are the most numerous - 55 and 44 thousand representatives, respectively. Deprecated name of the class Arachnids - Arachnids. It comes from the Greek language and, according to one version, is associated with Arachnaya - a skilled weaver. Puffed up, she stated that she was superior to Athena in her skill, and invited her to a match. Together with the recognition, she received the wrath of the goddess and was turned into a spider, doomed to always weave and hang in her nets. Perhaps, it is with this story that you can safely start all the interesting facts about arachnids.

Dimensions and structure

Representatives of the class are widespread everywhere, but mostly are land inhabitants, there are also inhabitants of fresh water bodies, as well as one marine species. The sizes of these arthropods are scattered from a few microns to tens of centimeters. In the structure it is common to distinguish between two divisions: the opistosome (abdomen) and the millet (the cephalothorax), the carrying limbs of chelicera, the walking legs and the pedipalps. The body of all arachnids is covered with a thin cuticle of chitin. Spiders and scorpions have specialized organs - a malodorous apparatus, while the first have spinning organs. By type of food, almost all the arachnids are predators, and only a few species have adapted to plant foods.

And now we invite you to find out the most unusual and interesting facts about the arachnids (spiders), namely about spiders, as the most famous and mysterious representatives of the class.

Fact number 1: about the size

We used to see small spiders at home or on the street, but do not even think about that somewhere in the tropical wilds of South America there is a huge class by the standards of the class - Terafosa Blond (photo below), it is also known as the tarantula tarantula. Dimensions of the body reach 10 cm, and with straightened legs up to 25-30 cm. It is capable of catching mice, frogs and toads, lizards and, according to some information, small birds.

Fact number 2: about the web

The web is a secret, isolated from special glands, which in the air quickly freezes and acquires a form familiar to all of us. Its chemical nature is a protein that is close in composition to silk threads. This is what the class of the Arachnids is famous for. Interesting facts about the web are numerous. It is very thin and light, but at the same time sturdy. So, the mass of a web, which can be braided all over the planet, will amount to just over 300 grams.

But at the same time, if you imagine that it was woven from spider threads with a thick pencil, then it can stop the plane. The largest webs are weaved by large-sized non-families. They are also known as banana spiders and have a body size of up to 4 cm, and the range of the legs is up to 12 cm. The largest cobweb in the world was recorded recently in the Mantadia (National Park) in Madagascar. The diameter of the "snare net" was 25 meters. Split such a miracle spider Darwin. After studying the characteristics of the web, scientists came to the conclusion that it is unique in strength and exceeds all similar indicators of other species by a factor of 10.

Fact number 3: about reproduction

Among spiders, sexual dimorphism is clearly traced , females are larger (sometimes significantly) males, in addition, they live longer. This is due to several factors. Firstly, males of many species, after they fertilize the eggs, die themselves, and secondly, the female can kill them. Interesting facts about arthropods (arachnids in this case) would be unthinkable without mentioning the infamous black widow (karakurt). Its toxicity toxicity to humans is times more dangerous than a rattlesnake. The name of the spider is due to the fact that after fertilization in most cases the female simply eats the male. The number of eggs laid can reach up to 20 thousand.

Fact # 4: about the poison

"Guinness Book of Records" in 2010 recognized the genus of Brazilian wandering spiders as the most poisonous in strength and in number of species. The range of their habitat is limited to Central and South America. The genus includes, according to the latest data, eight species, the latter being discovered very recently - in 2001. Their poison contains a dangerous and powerful neurotoxin, which in a toxic concentration leads to uncontrolled muscle contraction and leads to a stopping of breathing. However, there is an effective antidote that reduces the number of deaths to a minimum.

Fact # 5: about food

The way of nutrition and diet largely depends on the species. So, some representatives of arachnids can starve from several days to a year. However, interesting facts on biology (the spiders are in mind, in particular) will be incomplete without assumptions from the series: "And if?" So, even under the condition of hunger-strike of some species for a year, spiders eat a common biomass that exceeds the whole of humanity in volume. That is, if they were fed by people, they would easily be dealt with us in three days.

Spiders are hunters, but they get food in various ways. For example, the queen-spinner fishes. Binding the web with two trees, she lowers the loose thread with a bit of a secret at the end and watches. As soon as a potential victim appears, she begins to swing the "fishing rod", thereby attracting attention. Moths and other insects, stuck, no longer have a chance to free themselves, and the spider begins to pull the thread back to him quietly.

Fact # 6: again about food

Interesting facts about arachnids are not just about how these arthropods hunt and eat. Not always a spider chooses a victim, often he becomes it. It is for certain known about the existence of edible specimens, and they can even be tried in free access. Especially famous for the abundance of such exotic Asian cuisine. And even the poisonous tarantula in its habitats, the indigenous people (Cambodia, Laos) are happy to roast at the stake. Now in many ways it serves to attract curious tourists.

Fact # 7: Vegan Spider

Enumerating interesting facts about arachnids, this representative of the class can not be mentioned. Most spiders are predators. However, of all the rules, as is known, there are exceptions, in this case it is Bagir Kipling. A small spider of bright color (pictured) lives on acacias and feeds on vegetation. It is noted that in the years of severe drought and a shortage of fodder base, they can pass to cannibalism.

Fact number 8: about hunting

Weaving the skilful network is not the lot of all spiders. There are also those who use thin threads only as a material for erecting a dwelling, in which the female subsequently lays eggs. Spiders-horses are active day-time hunters and have sharp eyesight. They have an interesting hydraulic system of the body, which, as a result of changing blood pressure, expand the limbs and make jumps for a long distance. It is noteworthy that, before doing them, the spider takes precautions and is fixed by a spider's thread to the original place. In the photo below is a gray morph.

Fact No. 9: On Lifetime

It's difficult to say unequivocally about how many spiders live . It is only known that the minimum is before the period of puberty and mating (from several months to a year). That is, an individual dies after fulfilling its purpose - the continuation of the genus. However, in interesting facts about arachnids, it is necessary to include tarantulas. They are real record-holders for life expectancy, although it directly depends on sex. Males die after the first mating. Female, on the contrary, can live for years and even decades. It was noted that in captivity, under all conditions of detention, some specimens reached the age of 30 years.

Fact number 10: about scorpions

These amazing creatures are perhaps the most ancient arthropods that once emerged from the sea to dry land (more than 400 million years ago), however, their size was then quite impressive - up to 1 m in length. The current species is much more modest in size. The largest representative of the detachment is the imperial scorpion (up to 20 cm), the smallest - about 13 mm. They feed exclusively on living food, they do not consume water, and they can starve for two years. The most poisonous representative is the Israeli scorpion, which accounts for 90% of all people killed by the bite of these arthropods in North Africa.

These are very dangerous arachnids. Interesting facts about scorpions complete the top 10 amazing information about this class of arthropods. However, this is not the whole list, because nature leaves a lot of mysteries and secrets for a person.