DID YOU KNOW?
The world’s largest spider, the Goliath birdeater tarantula, has a leg span of 28 centimetres
SPIDERS ARE INSECTS
MYTH
1 Although spiders and insects are evolutionary cousins, the two are 1 very different creatures. Both spiders and insects, such as beetles and flies, have several similarities, including their comparable size, diet, habitat and lack of vertebrae. However, the two belong to different animal classes: Insecta (insects) and Arachnida (spiders). The biggest difference – and one of the distinguishing features separating them – is the number of legs each possesses. Spiders famously sport four pairs of legs, whereas insects only have three pairs. The body of a spider is also split into two segments – the abdomen and the cephalothorax, which is a combination of a head and thorax – whereas insects have three fully segmented body parts – the abdomen, thorax and head. Finally, there is no known species of spider that has developed wings, whereas almost all insects either have winged members of their species, such as ants, or metamorphose wings later on in life, like caterpillars.
Did you know?
Some spiders ingest their webs to recycle the material
DADDY LONG-LEGS ARE HIGHLY VENOMOUS, BUT THEIR FANGS CAN’T PUNCTURE OUR SKIN
MYTH
One of the first challenges of debunking this myth is to define what a ‘daddy long-legs’ is. For some it’s the spider-like arachnids called harvestmen (Opiliones), for some it’s cellar spiders (Pholcidae) and for others it’s the crane fly. Although harvestmen look like long-legged spiders, they’re not a member of the spider family. What’s true about this myth is that harvestmen and crane
