By Bryan Atariguana & Mia Fonzo

Spiders are not insects, they’re arachnids. They have 8 legs and 2 body parts: the abdomen and the thorax. They have silk spinning glands called spinnerets, at the tip of their abdomen. Not all spiders spin webs. There are 40,000 species of spiders – but information varies on this fact.

An abnormal fear of spiders is called arachnophobia. Most spiders have either 6 or 8 eyes. Most spiders have fangs which venom is injected through. Male spiders are usually smaller than female spiders. Spiders live with scorpions, mites, ticks and harvestman. Spiders are found in every continent except Antarctica.

Most spiders make silk which they use to create spider webs and capture prey. Abandoned spider webs are called cobwebs. Silk protein is very light but very strong. Spider silk is produced within the body of the spider and pulled out of two openings, or spinnerets, with the spider’s hind legs.

Most tarantula species pose no threat to humans. The largest species of tarantula is the Goliath Bird eater The Giant Huntsman spiders have leg-spans of around 30cm (12in). Tarantulas shed their furry skin as they grow, leaving behind what looks like another spider.

A wolf spider chases insects rather than building a web to catch them. The black widow is the spider with the most poisonous bite. Tarantulas are the largest in the spider family and may live for more than 30 years.

Tooter4kids.com Science Kids Yahoo.com Bing.com Google Images