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Spider
Someone called me one day about a spider they found in their chinaberry (lilac) tree. They didn't like spiders and were going to kill it if I didn't want to take it off their hands. As you can see, it is a beautiful spider, so I carefully captured the spider in a bug cage and took it to the lab for a closer look.
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Spider
I'm not an expert on spiders, so I don't know what kind of spider this is. The head on most spiders I've seen is more like a little lobe on the abdomen, this spider seems to have a long neck. And it is so hairy! If you look, you can see that there are basically two kinds of hair on this spider: some are light and fluffy and some are like sharp spikes. The spike are stiff hairs that are attached to nerves which help the spider feel even the slighest vibration of its web.
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Spider Mouth
A spider's mouth is really just a tube to its stomach. Spiders only have two teeth, which are really more like hypodermic needles... the kind of needles nurses use to give you a shot. The spider pokes these needle-like fangs, (at the bottom of the picture), into an insect and injects venom. The venom paralyzes the insect and starts dissolving the insect's insides. After it injects the venom into an insect, the spider waits a little while for the venom to completely paralyze the insect and start turning its insides into liquid. Then the spider puts its mouth over the hole it made with its fangs and starts sucking out the liquified insides of the insect.
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Spider Vision
I don't think this spider is able to see all that well. If it had good vision, like you do, it probably wouldn't have hair covering its eyes. This spider can probably just see dark and light. That would be enough to be able to tell when something moves, which is mostly what a spider needs to be able to capture its meals.
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Spider Web Silk
Spiders have glands in their backsides that manufacture web silk. The web silk starts out a liquid inside the spider, but when it is ejected from the cone shaped spinneretts, it solidifies into a very thin, but incredibly strong fiber. A single strand of this fiber is strong enough to hold the entire weight of the spider. That's like you being held up by a single strand of kite string! Some scientists say that spider silk is 300 times stronger than steel!
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Spider Spinnerett Cluster
The spinneretts are contained in a concave pit at the end of the spider's abdomen. The spider often uses its back legs to pull the silk out of the spinneretts to place it exactly where it wants it to go on the web. Most spiders are practically blind. They have to feel their way around. If you watch a spider walk on its web for awhile, you'll eventually see how blind they are. They will reach out with a leg, to take a step, and they'll have to feel all around with the leg to find the web.
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Spider Excretion
You'd probably think this is where the spider does its pooh-pooh, but it isn't. Can you imagine how messy and stinky the spider web would be if it was? Ewwwwwww! I doubt any insects would get suck in a spider web because they would be able to smell it long before they got near it. Spiders pooh-pooh through another hole which is usually located in the center of the abdomenm on the underside of the spider. After a spider eats a bug, it does pooh-pooh a LOT. Since spiders only suck liquids, its pooh-pooh is liquid, like diarrhea... and it really stinks bad!
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