Spiders are a special class of living creatures, which was named after a girl from Greek mythology. The myth of a weaver named Arachne, who dared to challenge Athena to the contest, says that the goddess won without recognizing the efforts of a simple girl. From resentment and frustration, Arachne wanted to hang herself. However, Athena she was turned into a spider, weaving its web without tiredness.
And now let us examine in more detail some characteristics of these arthropods. What features of the structure and behavior of the cross-spider help these living beings survive?
The special life of spiders
The spider-cross (photo confirms) is a typical representative of its class. To squad
arachnids also include ticks and scorpions. More than 300,000 species of this class live in tropical and mixed forests of our planet. To find out what features of the structure and behavior of the cross-spider exist, you need to be a very careful observer. More often than not, the “weaver” himself is invisible to us. But his web is quite noticeable!
The behavior of the spider-cross is determined by its lifestyle and habitat. Forests, parks, gardens and various green spaces - all this can be home to representatives of this species. In human dwellings, it is also quite common to find araneus diadematus.
Description of the appearance of the spider spider
The bodies of all spiders are similar:
- small cephalothorax;
- large abdomen of ovoid form;
- 8 legs.
According to the pattern on the surface of the back, similar to a cross, this species got its name. The so-called eyes (8 paired pieces) are located in front of the spider cephalothorax. The mouth of the crosspiece consists of several "details": a pair of jaw-claws with poisonous glands on the bases, as well as leg tentacles (chelicera) - the organs of touch.
The structural features of the cross-spider allow him to survive, attack and feed with the help of his powerful jaws. On the legs are combed claws, with which the "forest weaver" creates its sticky network. Arachnoid warts are located at the bottom of the abdomen. Despite having so many eyes, the spider family sees very poorly. The main helper for survival is touch with sensitive legs.
Way of feeding a cross
A builder and a hunter, a spider-cross, feeds on everything that falls into its traps. It can be horseflies and flies, mosquitoes or various midges and small insects. All representatives of this species are predators, including the cross. The photo helps to see the process of capturing insects in a sticky web network. Grabbing the prey with tentacles, its hook jaws, the spider bites it, injecting paralyzing poison into the victim's wound. At the same time, digestive juice, which softens the inside of the fly, enters his body.
With its irrepressible appetite, this insect hunter is able to suck out more than a dozen flies at a time. If there are too many victims, the behavioral characteristics of the cross-spider prompt him to wrap the captives in a cocoon and leave it for later. Stocks are suspended from a trap on threads. Spiders are not suitable for eating solid foods. But they can suck out the softened insect insides. For such an extra-intestinal way of feeding, arachnids do not need stomachs.
How spiders breed
Only at the end of the summer period, eight-legged forest dwellers reach puberty. Observing what structural and behavioral features of the cross-spider contribute to the reproduction of this species, biologists have found that females are more than twice as large as males. Living alone, only in the fall the spider sets off to look for a “lady”. Attaching his thread to the female trap and yanking it, he draws the attention of the female individual in this way. The mating that happened becomes the last event in the life of this male - the “lady” eats it after the process of fertilization. Instinct of satiety, nothing personal!
The female spider lays eggs in the autumn months, wrapping the clutch with a dense filamentous cocoon. With such silk protection, the future offspring will easily survive any frosts. Suspended in secluded places, in the crevices of tree bark, these cocoons will open next spring. Little spiders, having wintered, will go out to build their traps.
What makes a spider weave a web
Without its graceful trap, this predator would not be a spider. Let's look at what structural features and behavior of the cross-spider make him weave networks for life and nutrition.
- Hunger is the root cause of all actions of representatives of this species. To have food, you need to find a place suitable for a trap.
- When the arthropod determines the territory, the following instinct is turned on - the spider web composition begins to stand out.
- Each action causes subsequent signals of the necessary continuation. Everything is arranged simply and clearly.
Spider weaving skills can be innate, embedded in the genetic code, or acquired, depending on the environment. However, the general layout of the web always has many of the same details. Perfectly woven spiral coils are fixed along the radii of the network with equal angles. In this case, the center of gravity always coincides with the center of the spider web.
About spiders, cobwebs and humans
Remembering the signs and scientific research, you can find out what features of the behavior and structure of the spider-cross were used by mankind to treat various diseases.
- By attaching a fresh spider web to a small wound, you can stop the blood flow.
- It is believed that the decoration with the image of a forest octopus brings monetary luck.
- European doctors of the Middle Ages claimed that wearing a pendant in the form of a spider on the chest would protect against diseases.
- If the "handsome" sits in the center of his trap and does not crawl out, then it will certainly rain.
- If spiders weave fresh webs, then this is to sunny weather.
In conclusion, the benefits of the arachnid squad
If it were not for this family, mankind could have incurred large losses from
crop losses. Spiders play a practically leading role in the fight against pests. Over a season on a hectare of forest territory, these gluttons destroy more than 200 kg of possible carriers of various infectious diseases.
Vivat to spiders-crosses!