TOXIC ANIMALS
INTO THE WORLD OF SPIDERS
INTRODUCTION
Spiders are beautiful creatures that belong to the order Arachnida, their found in different environments all of the world even in damp marshes of the desertas long as there are arthropods to feed on (Preston-Mafham, 1993).All spiders are carnivores they hunt and feed on live insects, although some family of spiders specialize in hunting other spiders, the main thing is that they are all carnivores (Preston-Mafham, 1993). Some spiders hunt at night while others hunt during daylight time. The nocturnal spiders don’t depend on the webs to trap and catch insect but, instead they rely on the scent of the insect and the vibrations the insect emit on the ground to catch them (Dalton, 2008).the morphology of spiders hasn’t changed that much since the past you can see from the evidence of fossil records (Gertsch, 1979).
Figure 1: The morphology of the spider illustration (taken from Dalton 2008)
Spiders have deferent morphological characteristics than insects; as showed in Figure 1 they have four pair of legs and their mouth part is design to squeeze and crushing their prey and to suck fluid out of the bodies of the prey the catch (Hawkeswood, 2003).Different spiders make different webs, so species of spiders can be identified by the webs the make. The strength of the silk of the spider is five times stronger than steel of the same thickness (Dalton, 2008). Different species of spiders lay different kinds of eggs; their shapes and color are different (Hawkeswood, 2003). When people see spiders they see horror movies, the have this view that they were design to attack humans, but spiders only bite when their pinned against the skin(Dalton, 2008). They are very use full in control...
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...EN (2008) SPIDERS The ultimate predators. A&C Black publication, London, pp 157.
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HAWKESWOOD, TREVOR. J (2003) Spiders of Australia: an introduction to their classification, Biology and distribution. Pensoft publication,Bulgaria, pp 264.
PRESTON-MAFHAM, ROD AND KEN (1993) Spiders of the world. Cassell illustrated publication, New York, pp 191.
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Fox, R. 2001. Invertebrate Anatomy OnLine: Artemia Franciscana. Lander University. http://webs.lander.edu/rsfox/invertebrates/artemia.html, retrieved February 13, 2011.
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Background Information: Pillbugs are terrestrial Isopods which belong to the Class Crustacea. Appearance: flattened or rounded back, seven pairs of legs, sharp – angled antennae. Pillbugs have a set of overlapping gills on their underside. There are 12 different species of pillbugs found in the northern and central United States. However, there are nearly 4000 described species of pillbugs. They are fund in humid areas, compost piles, and leaf litter. They feed on dead vegetation such as wood and leaf litter. They cannot survive below -6.0 C, so they burrow 60 cm below the ground surface to reach safe temperatures. They reproduce during the months of May through September. If the pillbugs are irritated they will frequently exude a thick glue which serves to entangle predators, such as ground beetles, centipedes, and spiders.
Matson Museum of Antropology. Penn State college of Liberal Arts. 2011. 1 Aug 2011 .
More than two centuries ago, a Swedish scientist named Modeer described what appeared to be maternal behavior in the acanthosomatid shield bug Elasmucha grisea. He noted that the female did not fly away when an intruding object threatened her compact egg mass; instead, she remained steadfast and tilted her body towards the object (Tallamy). Unfortunately, this evidence, no matter how well documented, was not enough to convince countless people of the possibility of insects having parental instincts. The acknowledgement of parental behavior in insects was not a widely accepted idea for a number of years. Many people believed insects were too primitive to care for their young and that only when physical conditions became extremely severe were insects capable of expressing paternal abilities. The traditional view of maternal care is that it is an exceptional and relatively recent evolutionary leap forward (Tallamy).
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Jeremias Gotthelf ‘s novella, “The Black Spider” is a highly ideological story of an evil poisonous black spider that wreaks havoc and death upon the villagers. It begins with a picturesque framework of a christening party on a farm, during which a guest notices and inquires about an incongruous black post on a newly built house. The grandfather then tells a story about a tyrannical knight by the name of Hans von Stoffeln who imposed impossible burdens upon the villagers and of the devil that appears as a huntsman to be their savior. One villager, Christine, agrees to the devils proposal, thinking she can outwit him. However, her betrayal unleashes an uncontainable and perpetual evil upon their town.
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Throughout history, there have been hundreds of urban legends that have been told over and over again and have been passed down through generations. Over the years, there has also been much debate as to whether or not these legends are myths or if they actually have some truth to them. One legend in particular that there has been a debate on is The Spider Bite legend. This Legend has been told dating all the way back to the 1970’s and has had many variations of the story ever since. There has been extensive research throughout the years as to whether or not this legend is actually possible and although evidence has showed that this legend is most likely just a myth there have been stories in the news that have questioned the validity
The experiment was conducted to test three different variables. These variables are an assessment of female aggressiveness, food deprivation, and staged male to female interactions. When testing the female aggressiveness, virgin females were run through a latency of attack assay to determine their aggressiveness. The spiders were given 30 seconds and a cricket was dropped in and a measurement was taken of how long interaction occurred between the cricket and the spider. When testing food deprivation, the number of days that female spiders went without food varied and was paired in groups of 1, 3, and 5 days for routine feeding. It was predicted that the longer female spiders went without food, the hungrier they would be. When testing staged male and female interactions, the males were placed in female containers with open lids as an escape route. Each pair interacted for six hours and all pairs resulted in successful copulation, sexual cannibalism, or the male abandons the female’s web. All instances of cannibalism were precopula and occurred shortly after males initiated their courtship sequence. After interaction, the remaining males were taken out the female web and females that cannibalized a male were given 24 hours to feed on the male before being given another male. A female never cannibalized two males consecutively. It was concluded that females that attacked prey more rapidly were more likely to cannibalize their first male mate. There is no detection of an association between cannibalism or food deprivation and female’s body mass. There is a positive association between the mass of egg cases and the number of offspring in females. The study proved that two factor are important in sexual cannibalism, female hunger state and female aggressiveness. There is also a source of fitness benefit for the female.
Arachnida is a subphylum of Arthropoda, consisting of over 100 000 species, many of them being parasites which can carry disease. They are found in all environments, and mostly have eight legs, which is a feature, together with the fact that they do not have wings or antennae, often used to distinguish them from the other subphyla, though there are exceptions. They include spiders, scorpions, ticks and mites. Their bodies are divided up into three parts: the cephalothorax, the opisthosoma and the thorax, and use a type of lung for gas exchange. Most Arachnids are carnivorous, and eat pre-digested insects and other small animals. They reproduce using internal reproduction usually lay eggs, except for the scorpion which bears living young. The word ‘Arachnid’ comes from the Greek word ‘Arachne’ meaning ‘spider’.
...er and the soul are alike in how they search for what will continue their existence. For the spider, it is waiting patiently as he tries to find a way to trap his prey in order to continue its life. As for the soul, it must be patient and hold on to what it knows as religious truth as it waits to be nourished by the one that it truly serves. Both the spider and the soul must hold onto their anchor in order to wait for their prey. Once it is spotted, they must move quickly to it in order to ensure that they catch it. Once it is within their grasp, their existence may continue. But, if they are sidetracked by what goes on in their immediate surroundings instead of concentrating on their prey, then they may lose their opportunity for life. That is why the spider and the soul must be patient, noiseless, and ever ready to obtain what they have hunted for so long.
The Iron Spider is about 6’5 and weighs about 225 pounds. He is a solid