Eeek, It's a Spider! Trivia Quiz

Answer: True

Spiders are classified as air-breathing arthropods and also as invertebrates. This means that the outermost part of their bodies represents their skeletal system - and that protects the insides of the creatures, keeping them moist and preventing them from drying out. Insects are also classed in this way, but spiders and insects differ in a number of ways. Spiders don't posses antennae, for example, as they have a much larger centralised nervous system, and, amazingly so, because they don't possess extensor muscles on their legs, they actually use a form of hydraulic pressure to move them.

Oh my stars, that is quite possibly the reason that spiders can jump so fast and so far as well. Those are just a few of the differences between spiders and insects.

Answer: Triassic

Creatures similar in appearance to modern spiders first began appearing on the Earth some 386 million years ago during the Devonian period but, although they had silk producing spigots, they hadn't developed spinnerets yet. These only began appearing 318-299 millions year ago, leading scientists to class them as "true" spiders.

Some 99 million years later, in what is known as the Earth's Triassic period, "modern" spiders were well and truly established. The major groups of these were Mygalomorphae (funnel-webs, mouse spiders and tarantulas, for example) and Araneomorhae (crab spiders, jumping spiders, wolf spiders and huntsman spiders, for example).

Answer: False

Although most adult spiders prey on other creatures for lunch, the young of some spiders actually prefer nectar as nourishment. And for them, a sugar solution is a positive treat. This is because it contains various minerals, amino acids and vitamins. An interesting fact about spiders who prefer nectar is that they live longer than flesh eating arachnids.

There is also one spider in particular, a jumping spider called Bagheera kiplingi, that is almost a total herbivore in its dietary preferences. It inhabits plants in the Mimosoideae family - such as many of the ones found in Australia - eeek!

Answer: Under water

Really, this is astonishing. The female Argyroneta aquatica spiders build underwater webs that they fill with air, in a shape resembling diving bells a little. And there they spend almost all their lives, only surfacing periodically to replenish their supply of oxygen. They mate in these underwater webs, rear their children, and capture and eat their prey underwater.

Most web spinning spiders have poor vision, and catch and kill their their prey when they sense their struggles if ensnared on a web, and this little web-spinner is the most fascinating of all.

Answer: They liquefy it

The gut sections of the vast majority of spiders are very narrow so they cannot absorb solid food. Instead, they must first liquefy it before consumption. To do this, they pack digestive enzymes around the food. Those enzymes then speed up chemical reactions within each morsel and break it down into liquid.

Some spiders also have the additional ability to grind up food with their pedipalps - appendages with powerful pincers that grow out from both sides of the spider's jaw. To this, more digestive enzymes are added and, when ready, spiders suck the liquid part of the food into their gut - leaving empty shells or cases behind.

Answer: True

The main pair of eyes on most spiders, if you're brave or foolish enough to peer closely at them, can be found at the front of their heads. These are referred to as pigment-cup ocelli and, unlike other anthropods which can only detect light with their visual receptors, spiders can actually see images with these two eyes. The other eyes on spiders, which aren't particularly useful, are known as secondary eyes, and are believed to have devolved from ancestral anthopoda of long ago. They lack muscles, whereas the primary pair of eyes definitely do have muscles.

There are various other classes of spiders, not many, who only have six, four, or two pairs of eyes, and one group of these creatures - cave spiders - possess no eyes at all.

Answer: Cuticles

The exoskeleton of spiders would normally block out sensory information from the external world, for that is the purpose of the original design. However, spiders have evolved, rather fascinatingly, over millions of years, to modify their cuticles to allow them to sense both taste and smell.

This takes place through minute bristles, known as setae, on their exoskeletons, and these provide an amazing range of sensory input back through to a spider's central nervous system.

Answer: Pedipalps

Pedipalps, as you may recall from an earlier question, are the two front pincers located near the front of a spider's head - close to their jaws and not too far from their main pair of eyes. To make a female irresistible to a male spider, nature has rather meanly placed many more setae along the surface of a male spider's pedipalps - designed especially to pick up the scent of any female's pheromones. Waving there right under the part of his anatomy designed to see and smell and a tantalising, constant reminder that he must mate.

And what is his reward from such dirty tactics if he manages to hit the jackpot and mate with the alluring female of his choice? She may eat him.

Answer: It increases mobility

Increased mobility means more prey and first past the post as far as finding a female goes. When the amorous little male does find a suitable female, and to prevent being eaten before mating, he performs what is described as a type of courting dance that almost hypnotises her into submission. Previous to this, over the course of his short life, he has ejected small amounts of sperm into little web wrapped bulbs and fixed them to the end of his remaining pedipalp ready for the big occasion.

When the dazed female is ready to mate, he then injects the bulbs into her, through either one of two openings on her abdomen. Unfortunately, with some species of spiders, the female then rips the remaining pedipalp off the male during mating - leaving him - dare one say it - palpless and helpless.

Answer: To ensure she is well fed

This is particularly the case with the Australian redback spider, and, if it were human, such an act of sacrifice would be considered noble and brave indeed. After mating with the female, that brave little ANZAC male will often deliberately impale himself onto the female's fangs -"Thus with a kiss I die" - in order to ensure that she is well fed, thereby producing even more offspring.