The spider realm……

14th June 2025

My family are scaredy-cats. I have never seen so much whimpering when an eight legged being zooms into view….

Ok, Ok. I may scoff, but even I admit the spider realm is vast and cannot deny many of the species send shivers up my back….friendly and cuddly they ain’t. Spiders have been found everywhere across the globe except in Antartica and It doesn’t help my timidity observing in the countryside –  spiders rule. I’m quite sure the seven degrees (steps) of separation apply to the spider domain. 

There is so much I could cover about spiders; they are a formidable and creative ensemble. But I’m focussing on a few aspects which particularly intrigue me. 

According to Wikipedia over fifty-two thousand species of spiders exist across 134 families (noting species is the most fundamental of classifications and a family is a larger grouping of shared characteristics). Spiders are part of the Arachnid class which also includes scorpions, and surprisingly ticks and mites. What makes an Arachnid a spider and not an insect is eight legs (four pairs) and a body divided into two segments – the cephalothorax (head and thorax bearing the eyes and legs) and the abdomen.

As spiders have no internal skeleton (an external harder structure instead), the legs are not supported in the same way as we are and only held together by one or very few tendons. Each leg has seven joints to flex inwardly and push off at speed employing the hydraulic pressure regulated by managing fluid flowing copiously through their bodies. Some legs host claws on the end and most have thick hair sensitive to vibration and to enable movement in a web. Spiders generally have eight eyes but oddly few have good eyesight! 

All spiders are predators, feeding predominantly on insects. They enlist a variety of techniques to capture their prey. Some will chase and over-power, others will forge webs in which quarry is entangled and a remainder will mimic their catch in order to remain discreetly close. Those which hunt tend to have well honed sight whilst the rest principally interpret the circling vibrations. Many spiders manufacture venom with which to subdue or kill their food. Venom is squeezed out through the fangs located within their jaws. Food can be wrapped in silk before being injected or after to be transported. Any prey that has become lunch tends to not be eaten whole but liquified via an excreted enzyme and then sucked or chewed by the spider. Sounds delightful.  

Spiders are admired for the churning out of silk and I enjoy the Greek myth which explains how the spider and its weaving abilities came to be. Arachne a talented human boasted of her weaving superiority even in comparison to the goddess of such crafts. To cut a long story short, the goddess Athena insulted, was challenged to a spinning contest. Athena accepted then was so enraged by Arachne’s tapestry of the Gods behaving poorly as well as its perfection, tore it to shreds. In despair, Arachne attempted to kill herself. Out of pity, Athena saved her life and transformed her into a spider. Doomed forever to weave. 

Silk production is quite a feat and an aspect humans have long been inspired by. Produced from a liquid protein by glands located in the abdomen, the silk reaches the outside world via spinnerets and ducts which control the flow by varying pressure. Some spiders fabricate only two types of silk but others up to seven variations each with a varying flexibility, stickiness, strength and hence purpose – web making, wrapping prey, producing egg sacs.

This silk is remarkably elastic and resilient, proclaimed for being harder than steel and tougher than kevlar. So much so, scientists have explored the synthetic production of spider silk for medical and other world applications. However spiders are difficult to house train and so an alternative path was considered. In 1990 scientists first sequenced the spider silk gene (the gene offering instructions on how to produce the protein which is transmuted into silk). From there steps have been taken to grow artificial silk in the lab, though not terribly successfully. 

In web making, it is ingenious the multiple silk formations (supported with the merest of physical underpinnings) spiders create to confound potential quarry. Horizontal, vertical sheets, curtains that snag prey when brushed against; 3D constructs, conical webs to slingshot a spider at its catch, and nets or bludgeons of silk. Curiously whilst prey gets stuck in these constructs, spiders are adapted not to. These structures are carefully designed to withstand heavy loads and harsh weather including rain and wind. Each are built with redundancies, perfect tension and easy repair in mind as they are forged in a non-linear process. As an aside, silk is also used for spider transport. By letting out a line of silk in the wind, a spider can move great distances. 

The last feature I’d like to cover is female versus male spiders. In many spider species the latter is smaller than the female. In a gruesome practice known as sexual cannibalism, the female will eat the male spider during or post copulation, overwhelming him with her strength. Some male spiders have learnt to catapult themselves away but in a weird twist of Stockholm syndrome have been observed to return up to six times to their cannibal partner to ensure insemination has occurred. Separately some male species die after intercourse as their bodies are too weak to recover.

From an evolutionary perspective it is thought the expiration of the male spider occurs because they do not contribute to the next generation post mating, whereas the female eats to recoup the nutrition and energy lost during egg production to enable her to birth offspring. I’m not sure why this aspect of the spider world made me ponder….perhaps because it jolts in memory the Greek myth of the island of Lemmos where the women killed all the men of the island and ruled…or perhaps there is an iota of truth in our lives to child rearing. This statement will truly ensure my husband stops speaking to me.

I almost went a whole post without mentioning super heroes; alas not. You can see why there is a super hero based on spiders and even a spider-woman. But for some reason they decided not to follow real life so she does not eat men. I’m wondering if this omission eases the discomfort of my family or makes it worse…..