Spiders - why do they have such long legs..?

Not exactly a design success.......

 

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Comments

  • Well they're hardly extinct, are they?
  • Good point...   so..  why do you think they evolved with such long legs relative to their body size..?   

  • so they can spread their body weight over a larger area on their webs and not damage the web (species that don't build webs have shorter legs!) or maybe so they can scare people more?? image

  • If I was a spider and had to spend my time walking around through prickly bushes etc I'd be glad of long legs to avoid sctatching my bollocks off

  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭

    Different species have different leg/body-size ratios.

    The ones I get in my flat are these:

     

    /members/images/4741/Gallery/imagesCAPF3ZTJ.jpg

     image

  • image Eeek!

    This thread does NOT need pictures!

     

  • Rafiki wrote (see)

    so they can spread their body weight over a larger area on their webs and not damage the web 

    Sounds reasonable.

    I'm not particularly freaked out by these little fellas, but the wolf spider gets me a bit icky.  The only spider to carry their babies around on their back.  I'll spare those of a delicate disposition any photos, hence the link. image

  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭

    That's actually quite cute!  Looks like some sort of tea cosy.

  • I always have to rescue my husband from spiders image

     

  • Spiders move their legs using hydraulics, so it might be something to do with that.

  • BookyBooky ✭✭✭
    PhilPub wrote (see)
    Rafiki wrote (see)

    so they can spread their body weight over a larger area on their webs and not damage the web 

    Sounds reasonable.

    I'm not particularly freaked out by these little fellas, but the wolf spider gets me a bit icky.  The only spider to carry their babies around on their back.  I'll spare those of a delicate disposition any photos, hence the link. image

    image That looks like some sort of nightmarish spider-wig. 

  • I had to remove 2, yes 2 spiders from my car on the way to work this morning.  The first was like in Wilkies pic, he was walking across the sun visor, then there was a little one hanging from the ceiling who I thought might as well go as well. 

    EDIT: Wow, that picture is amazing!!

  • image you mean you murdered a whole family!!!

  • limperlimper ✭✭✭

    Opened the link about 5 minutes ago... the screams are only just dying down now image

  • Rafiki wrote (see)

    image you mean you murdered a whole family!!!

    I did not!  I put them out in the wonderful Welsh countryside .. together.  The big one's probably eating the little one right now... image

  • sarah the bookworm wrote (see)
    PhilPub wrote (see)
    Rafiki wrote (see)

    so they can spread their body weight over a larger area on their webs and not damage the web 

    Sounds reasonable.

    I'm not particularly freaked out by these little fellas, but the wolf spider gets me a bit icky.  The only spider to carry their babies around on their back.  I'll spare those of a delicate disposition any photos, hence the link. image

    image That looks like some sort of nightmarish spider-wig. 

    image Note to self show and tell next time one it walking around the house.

  • One of my daughters had a tarantula (oh and lizards etc.) so not really frightened of the things having held one many times.  One Halloween, when she was a teenager, she answered the door to some children with the spider just holding on the front of her jumper, I can still hear the screamsimage

    To feed them, and the lizards, means putting your hand in a jar and grabbing a handful of live cockroaches to throw in with them, fun in itself if you don't like creepy crawlies.  In the summer we used to go out catching grasshoppers for a treat (for them not for usimage)

  • BookyBooky ✭✭✭

    image

    *tries not to vomit* image

  • E mmyE mmy ✭✭✭
    Juliefrazz wrote (see)

    image Eeek!

    This thread does NOT need pictures!

     

    Agreed.... although I looked at PhilPubs picture and wonder if i'll be able to sleep tonight :/

  • Emmy_H wrote (see)
     

    I looked at PhilPubs picture and wonder if i'll be able to sleep tonight :/

    I do hope this doesn't get quoted out of context.   image

  • Guy I used to work with wasn't keen on spiders. He didn't mind photos of them, except when I showed him a jumping spider.

    He said the eyes freaked him out:

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Phidippus_audax_male.jpg/786px-Phidippus_audax_male.jpg

     

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭

    The incidents quoted below are all considered to have been genuine cases of spider bite. They are cases where the specimen was submitted for identification to the Natural History Museum, and accompanied by an account of the bite and its symptoms.

    • Report 1: Tube web spider, Segestria florentina
    • Report 2: False widow spider, Steatoda nobilis
    • Report 3: Woodlouse spider, Dysdera crocata
    • Report 4: Walnut orb-weaver spider, Nuctenea umbratica
    • Report 5: False widow spider or cellar spider, Steatoda grossa
    • Report 6: Lace weaver spider, Amaurobius similis
    • Report 7: Black lace weaver spider, Amaurobius ferox
    • Report 8: Mouse spider, Herpyllus blackwalli
    • Report 9: Rustic wolf spider, Trochosa ruricola
    • Report 10: Bark sac spider, Clubiona corticalis
    • Report 11: Stone spider, Drassodes lapidosus
    • Report 12: Cross or garden spider, Araneus diadematus
    • Report 13: Bruennichi's Argiope, Argiope bruennichi
    • Report 14: Money spider, Leptohoptrum robustum
    Just in case you assumed all UK spiders feeble. If in doubt. Stamp on em!

    🙂

  • If you know anybody from or who has worked in the Middle East, ask them about Camel spiders.  There are all sorts of rumours about them being able to run 30mph and screaming as they attack, unfounded apparently, but they are really aggressive and if you try to sweep them away with a broom they will run up the broom at you.  I know guys who have worked on military aircraft out in Saudi Arabia and they say everybody enters hangars at night with real caution

  • I am also surprised now that nobody has mentioned that this is truly a hot "thread"image

  • ShivaShiva ✭✭✭

    I love spiders, could spend hours watching them.  I used to feed them in the graden as a child, and it's where my love of entomology grew from.  Anyone share my love of inchneumon wasps? Didn't think so

    /members/images/102266/Gallery/images.jpg

     

    RicF, My friend actually got bitten by a woodlouse spider (report 3), I saw it happen and he had a massive reaction to the bite and had a golf ball sized lump on his arm.

     

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭

    Not exactly Giant centipedes and Male Funnel Web spiders but until I read that report i was under the impression only two UK spider species could bite.

    As for the venom in UK spiders I once lobbed a maggot on to a web in my shed and a tiny pale green (body 2mm dia) spider appeared and gave it a nip. The maggot stopped moving instantly. 

    I did wonder what the result would been if the spider was big enough to nip me.

    Wonder what species it was.

    🙂

  • ShivaShiva ✭✭✭

    Sounds like a green orb weaver, small, green and a powerful venom

  • Here is my pet chillian common tarantula, She is around 17 years old and wouldn't harm anything that's not food.

    Although she spends most of her time perfectly still it still amazes me to watch her wash ,first dampening the end of one of her feet and curling her leg round to scrub her back.

    watching her web the floor when she is about to shed, Shedding her skin is itself amazing rolling on to her back before spending several hours pulling herself out of her skin .

    /members/images/510108/Gallery/100_1503_1.JPG

    My wife and work colleges many men at that often call me to catch spiders to remove them from where they are working. One work mate said that he and his wife were on their kitchen table for an hour one weekend because both are terrified of spiders and one decided to march across their floor (lol).

    before anyone asks why I have a pet spider its a very long story, I never intended to get one as a pet but I am glad that I have  or I would of missed some incredible moments

  • image Thats so cool I want one. Thanks for sharing.

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