20 Creepy Crawly Fun Facts About Spiders That'll Spin Your Web of Knowledge

1. Spider-Man's Bungee Jumping Business

If Spider-Man decided to start a bungee jumping business with his web-slinging skills, he just might give those rubber cords a run for their money: Spider silk is not only incredibly strong, but it's also almost as elastic as rubber, thanks to its protein-packed structure with unique amino acid sequences that keep it from snapping and letting Peter Parker's customers go splat.
Source => ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

2. Motherly Love and Digestive Juices

Forget family therapy: Some spiders prefer motherly love with a side of digestive juices. Welcome to the world of Amaurobius ferox, where a mother's ultimate sacrifice is the family's favorite meal: This spider species builds an egg sac, guards it for three weeks, then provides a batch of nourishing eggs for its spiderlings. After enjoying this appetizer for a few days, the little ones engulf their mother in a savage feast, improving their chances of survival in the long run.
Source => centralmaine.com

Did you know male black widow spiders perform mid-coital somersaults onto their partner's fangs, sacrificing themselves for love and a higher chance of fatherhood? Discover more fascinating facts about these eight-legged Casanovas! 🕷️💕

=> Fun Facts about Black-Widows

3. Silk Stronger than Schwarzenegger

Who needs an itsy-bitsy spider when we have badass arachnids with silk stronger than Schwarzenegger's biceps? Spider-Man would be jealous: Spider silk is five times stronger than steel and three times tougher than Kevlar, resulting in companies like AMSilk making progress by producing spider silk protein through genetically engineered E. coli for use in cosmetics and beyond. The world wide web better watch out because we're coming for ya with our incredible spider silk!
Source => zmescience.com

4. Tangle-web Spiders: World's Tiniest Bouncers

Who needs a gym when you've got eight legs and a talent for silk-slinging? Tangle-web spiders could give any bodybuilder a run for their money: Using a pulley-like silk system, these arachnid virtuosos effortlessly hoist snacks up to 50 times their bodyweight, gradually adding silk bands to build tension and elevate their prey like the world's tiniest bouncers.
Source => npr.org

5. Jumping Spiders' Built-in Laser Light Show

Who needs rose-tinted glasses when you have ruby red eyes? Jumping spiders, the 'party animals' of arachnids, seem to be born ready to disco, spotting all the right moves – and colors – with their built-in laser light show: These eight-legged creatures have trichromatic vision, similar to humans, able to see in green, UV, and red, orange, and yellow thanks to a red filter pigment in their primary eyes. This groovy gift allows them to discern between colors even at a distance, making their mating dance a visual extravaganza. Although X-rays aren't on their visual playlist, these tiny dancers can see more colors than us humans due to their UV-sensing superpowers.
Source => smithsonianmag.com

6. Trapdoor Spiders: Masters of Disguise

Move over Houdini, Trapdoor Spiders are the masters of disguise and ambush; they steal the spotlight without even spinning a web: These clever nocturnal arachnids create a camouflaged "trapdoor" with dirt and plant material held together by silk, patiently waiting to pounce on unsuspecting prey like insects, other spiders, and even baby birds, snakes, or small mammals like mice that happen to trip the silk alarm system.
Source => bugunderglass.com

7. Eight Types of Silk for Various Purposes

Oh, the tangled webs they weave: spiders are expert silk spinners, boasting silk glands capable of producing up to eight different types of silk for various purposes, such as swaddling snacks, constructing intricate web designs, and keeping their precious eggs safe and sound.
Source => australian.museum

8. Sensory Hairs: Who Needs Eyes?

Who needs eyes when you've got hair that can sense prey and mates? Some spiders are giving "eye candy" a whole new meaning: While pseudoscorpions, mites, harvestmen, and cave-dwelling arachnids evolved to lose their visual senses and rely on their sensory hairs called sensilla, jumping spiders flaunt their exceptional eyesight to locate victims and woo potential partners.
Source => nationalmuseumpublications.co.za

9. Spider Airlines: Insects Travel Free

Ever hear of Spider Airlines, where insects travel free and first-class includes bats and birds? Well, get ready for takeoff: Some social spider species spin communal webs that enable them to capture and feast on prey much larger than themselves, including birds and bats - all while enjoying the perks of cooperative nest maintenance and predator defense within their colonies.
Source => en.wikipedia.org

10. Hydraulic-powered Spider Leg Gripper

You know what they say - waste not, want not, even when the resource is dead spider legs! In a gripping display of recycling, mechanical engineers flex their creative muscles with the ultimate arachnid-inspired innovation: Behold the hydraulic-powered spider leg gripper, which Rice University's finest created using air to simulate the living spider’s movements. This wonder of modern science can lift an astonishing 130% of its own body weight, and open and close its spidery grip a whopping 1,000 times!
Source => popularmechanics.com

11. Synthetic Spider Silk Fashion

Spider-Man better watch out: the fashion world is quickly catching up! Synthetic spider silk jackets are all the rage, making our friendly neighborhood web-slinger's wardrobe choice even more fabulous: In 2019, mass production of synthetic spider silk jackets began, and researchers are investigating genetic engineering and the sugar beet industry to produce this super-strong, lightweight material for tissue engineering, drug delivery, and biomedical products. So, step aside, Steel – Spider Silk is here to claim its spot in the limelight!
Source => researchgate.net

12. Tarantulas: Batman's Grappling Hook Rivals

Did you know that tarantulas moonlight as expert rock climbers, with built-in grappling hooks that would put Batman to shame? Their secret weapon: each leg houses two retractable claws that - when pressure is applied - split in two, fanning out for extra grip on surfaces! And as if that weren't cool enough, they also come equipped with a set of special hairs called the scopula, encircling those same claws to help them scale even the smoothest of surfaces, like some eight-legged, glass-scaling Spiderman.
Source => jayrockin.tumblr.com

13. Electric Feel of Cross Spider's Web

Listen up, folks! Spider-Man may have invented the web-shooter, but our eight-legged amigos' webs come with their very own electric feel: The common cross spider's web is naturally attracted to electrically charged objects, inadvertently trapping electrically charged prey like honeybees through this electrostatic attraction.
Source => nbcnews.com

14. The Hilarious Sacrifice of Orb-web Spiders

Talk about taking one for the team: Male orb-web spiders literally break a leg (well, a palp) during mating in the noble pursuit of fatherhood. The hilarious sacrifice: detaching their own sex organ while mating, initiating a process called remote copulation, which not only allows more sperm to fertilize those precious eggs for up to 20 more minutes, but also secures his paternity by creating a plug that blocks other suitors from entering the scene.
Source => phys.org

15. Breaking Free with New Exoskeletons

Breaking up is hard to do: especially when you're literally breaking out of your own skin! Spiders manage to pull off this creepy Houdini-like escape act as they grow, shedding their old exoskeleton and emerging anew. The secret to this great escape: a special fluid that creates a gap between their old and new exoskeleton, helping them slip right out without getting stuck. But like most great illusionists, they stay incognito right after the show, lowering themselves on a silk line and hiding until their new, vulnerable skin hardens up. Voilà! A newly upgraded spider, ready to dazzle the world once more.
Source => animals.howstuffworks.com

16. Siler collingwoodi Spider: Ultimate Trendsetter

When life gives you ants, pretend to be one: The Siler collingwoodi spider doesn't let pesky predators ruin its day, as it mimics ants – from raising its front legs as antennae to moving with a high-stepping strut – to deter its not-so-eight-legged fan club. This clever spider even gets a fashion-forward upgrade with attention-grabbing colors that help it blend into the flower power scene, making it the ultimate trendsetter in the tiny critter community.
Source => newsweek.com

17. Nuptial Gift-Giving for Love and Trickery

Male spiders: the original romantic gift-givers... with a twist! These eight-legged Casanovas of the Pisaura mirabilis species play the ultimate game of "trick or treat" by offering lovingly gift-wrapped bugs to their lady loves, but beware the ones bearing fake gifts, or you might just get dinner-and-dashed: In this fascinating world of bizarre romance, some male spiders offer females insects wrapped in silk as “nuptial gifts” and increase their mating success, while others try to deceive by presenting worthless presents and pretending to be dead, though the females are smart enough to still end the mating early if they detect this deceit.
Source => washingtonpost.com

18. Peacock Spider: The Heartthrob of the Spider World

Step aside, Romeo: there's a new casanova in town with their slick dance moves, vibrant attire, and matchless flirtation skills. Who's the heartthrob, you ask? Why, none other than the male peacock spider! The serious reveal: These lovelorn arachnids perform elaborate courtship rituals that involve flaunting their colorful flaps and ornate legs while sending alluring, distinct vibrations to potential mates – all in the name of love.
Source => ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

19. The Ultimate Eavesdropping Spider

Whoever said spiders are the ultimate eavesdroppers, must have only heard half the story! They might not boast an impressive gossip range, but they sure can feel the vibes: Spiders may not be able to sense prey movements from a meter away, but their highly-tuned sensory hairs and pit-like sense organs keep them in the loop about their surroundings. These eight-legged dancers pick up on airborne vibrations with vertical hairs called trichobothria, and have slit organs that even let them distinguish between a tasty snack or a flirting friend!
Source => australian.museum

20. Spiders: Nature's Original Exterminators

Spiders: nature's original exterminators, fighting the good fight against insects long before Orkin came along! These eight-legged combatants reside in an astonishing range of prestigious environments – from the ritziest desert oases to the elite Arctic clubs – leaving no insect haven unchallenged: They not only chow down on a jaw-dropping 400 to 800 million metric tons of bugs per year, but in doing so, provide crucial, organic pest control and help maintain balance in those pesky insect populations, particularly within forests and grasslands.
Source => cnn.com