Spiders have evolved some of the strangest survival strategies in the animal kingdom. From bizarre courtship rituals and surprising intelligence to giant tarantulas and record-breaking webs, these facts reveal a side of spiders that is equal parts creepy, fascinating, and unexpected.
Dangerous Bite, Unexpected Effect
1. Venom from the Brazilian wandering spider can induce an erection that persists for hours.
2. In 2011, a Missouri family sued the previous owners of a house they had just bought after Brown recluse spiders “started bleeding out of the walls.” An expert came in and estimated that the house was infested with 4,500 – 6,000 of the spiders.
3. A spider named Portia is capable of insight, trial-and-error learning, and puzzle solving because its food source is other spiders.
4. Male spiders give female spiders gifts of prey wrapped in silk to increase their mating success. Wrapping the gift in silk prevents the female from stealing it without copulating, and sometimes the males’ concealed gifts are just random trash.
5. There is a less venomous invasive Brown widow spider that is slowly replacing the Black widow.
6. As part of courtship, male nursery web spiders present wrapped offerings to females. When a female declines the present, the male feigns death and later tries again.
7. Funnel-web spider venom is highly toxic to primates while largely harmless to many other species. In Australia, the only primates present are humans.
8. Tarantulas typically take about ten years to reach full adulthood, and females have been recorded living as long as 30 to 40 years.
9. Out of roughly 34,000 spider species, just 27 have been documented to cause human deaths.
10. Certain tarantulas house frogs as companions so the frogs will consume insects that burrow into the tarantulas’ nests.
Persistent Self Sacrificial Behavior
11. Male red widow spiders thrust themselves at females, effectively force-feeding themselves to them; if a female spits him out, he repeatedly pushes himself back into her mandibles.
12. An annual Tarantula Exhibition judges entrants similarly to a dog show. Entrants are evaluated for shiny coats, correct proportions, an active demeanor, and proper stance. In 2014, over 30,000 tarantulas and their keepers attended the event.
13. Research at Miami University found spiders prefer classical music. While listening to techno and rap, they built their webs as far from the speaker as possible, but when Bach was played they built their webs as close to the speaker as possible.
14. Daddy longlegs prey on venomous spiders such as the black widow.
15. The gigantic, hairy Goliath birdeater tarantula is completely harmless and passive toward humans, and its bite would barely compare to the sting of a wasp.
16. Female black widow spiders infrequently consume their mates after copulation, and much of the reported evidence for mate cannibalism comes from laboratory cages where males had no way to escape.
17. Out of 46,000 discovered spider species, only a single species, Bagheera kiplingi, has been identified as an herbivore.
18. The Goliath birdeater, the world’s largest spider, has a leg span comparable to a child’s forearm, can weigh as much as a puppy, may live for 25 years, and possesses fangs strong enough to pierce skulls.
19. The golden wheel spider can assume a wheel shape and cartwheel away when it feels threatened.
20. An Australian funnel-web spider’s fangs are capable of penetrating fingernails and shoes.
South Carolina’s Unique Spider Symbol
21. The Carolina wolf spider is the official state spider of South Carolina, and South Carolina is the only U.S. state that has designated an official state spider.
22. The largest spider fossil discovered is roughly half as large as its living relatives. This means that the biggest spiders alive today might be the biggest spiders that have ever existed.
23. The likelihood of a person swallowing even a single spider while asleep over their lifetime is nearly 0%.
24. Spiders adjust the tension of individual web strands so each vibrates at a particular frequency, allowing the spider to pinpoint where something is caught. They also use these tuned vibrations to determine whether the source is food or a potential mate.
25. Daddy Longlegs have existed for at least 400 million years with little change, and they predate the dinosaurs.
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