The Secret World of Spiders An accessible book by Amy Fleming An adult wolf spider

Spiders are found almost everywhere on Earth. Some are large, but most spiders are very small.

All spiders have a two part body. The front part has two fangs and eight legs.

A spider head and fangs seen through an electron microscope

The back part of the spider has openings for breathing, making silk, and mating.

About half of all spiders spin a web. Every spider can spin silk.

The orb-weaver spider spins a perfect web every time. Prey land in the web. Then the spider wraps the prey in silk and kills with a bite of its fangs.

Some spiders hunt on the ground and hide in holes.

The boreal jumping spider is found in drier parts of British Columbia.

A jumping spider has the best eyesight in the spider family. It can also turn its head around to look at prey.

The bite of this spider can cause nausea, aching all over your body, and sweating. You may also have trouble breathing. A black widow spider

Fishing spiders crawl around on underwater plants and breathe air trapped in the tiny hairs on their legs and bodies.

The Giant House Spider has legs that can span up to 8 cm. So it looks scary running across your bedroom floor!

Wow!

Crab spiders are often the same colour as nearby flowers so the bugs they want to eat cannot see them. Birds cannot see these crab spiders! Colour helps keep crab spiders safe.

Spiders are carnivores, or meat eaters. Most spiders eat insects. Some larger spiders eat mice, frogs, lizards, snakes, or fish.

Spiders do not chew their prey.

A spider sucking the juice out of an insect’s body

The fishing spider lives in ponds and eats fish, damsel flies and other bugs.

When wolf spiderlings hatch, they cling to their mother’s back. For up to ten days they ride on their mother’s back.

Some baby spiders live for a few days inside a silk nest made by their mother.

As a spider grows, it sheds its old skin. The new skin underneath hardens in about two hours. Molted skin of a spider

There are lots more secrets to tell about spiders, but not in this book!

The End