I can’t exactly say I love spiders, because they creep me the hell out. I don’t hate them, though; I think spiders and a lot of insects are seriously misunderstood creatures that, sadly, are often subject to the under sole of a shoe or a rolled-up newspaper.
I can thank my mom for my respect for bugs – she has always, believe it or not, loved insects of all sorts, and she finds them rather interesting. When I was younger, if there was a bug in the house, my mom would carefully scoop it up in a dixie cup and place it back outdoors.
I admire spiders from a distance, and Blaine and I actually have a Cross Orbweaver spider that has made itself at home on our porch and has fashioned quite the web, too. I was looking at it the other day and it inspired me to look into some common facts about spiders. This information comes from discoverwildlife.com.
“Are spiders insects? Spiders are not insects, but belong to a group called the arachnids. The Arachnida class also includes harvestmen, ticks, mites, scorpions and pseudoscorpions. They differ from insects in having only two parts to the body, eight legs not six, six or eight eyes (two in insects) and spinnerets on their abdomens that produce silk.
“How many spiders are there that you never see? A study of an undisturbed grass field in Sussex found 5.5 million spiders per hectare.
“How many eyes do spiders have? People usually think of spiders having eight eyes, but that’s not always true. While most spiders have eight eyes, there are some that only have six, and even some spiders that have fewer than six eyes. They always come in an even number, though – there are no cyclops spiders!” the web page explains.
Check back tomorrow for more information about our spider friends.
Photo by Ed van duijn on Unsplash
ontheedgeofeverything 