The Spider Trivia Page

Facts, Rumors, Jokes, & Links

Daddy Long-Legs

The venom in a Daddy Long-Legs spider is more poisonous than a Black Widow's or a Brown Recluse, but they cannot bite humans because their jaws won't open wide enough. The average human eats 8 spiders in their lifetime at night. On average, people fear spiders more than they do death. You are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by a poisonous spider. The average chocolate bar has 8 insects' legs in it. Spider silk is an extremely strong material and is on weight basis stronger than steel. It has been suggested that a pencil thick strand of silk could stop a Boeing 747 in flight. Ed Nieuwenhuys

Spider's Face electron microscope image by Dwight Romanovicz

A Bad Spider Joke (as told to me by Alexander Nitoussov, 22.1.00)   A group of scientists is perfoming a series of experiments on a spider. They cut one leg off the spider and tell it to crawl. The spider crawls. Next they cut a second leg off the spider. "Crawl!" they command. The spider crawls. They cut off a third leg. "Crawl!" The spider crawls. They continue cutting the legs off the spider one at a time and commanding it to crawl. Each time, with one leg less, the poor spider crawls. Finally, they cut the eighth leg off the spider and tell it to crawl. The spider does not respond. The one scientist says to the other, "Make a note, when we cut off the eighth leg, the spider became deaf.".

Spider Research Links: Stoned Spiders: Nasa scientists believe the research demonstrates that web-spinning spiders can be used to test drugs because the more toxic the chemical, the more deformed was the web. Spiders Return to Outerspace: House spiders have several advantages that make them suitable for a space flight. They are available year-round, have relatively long lives, don't require a water supply, and are well-adapted to environmental conditions favored by humans. Links to Everything: ARACHNOLOGY The study of arachnids

An email response: George Hammond writes:   One trivia note: I don't know about your other spider trivia, but the story about "Daddy Long-legs" venom being very dangerous is not true. English-speakers in various parts of the world apply that name to different animals (usually opilionids, but also spiders in the family phocidae, and in some places long-legged flies), but none of those animals are particularly venomous. The spiders do have venom, but it's not special, and some of the opilionids (and all the flies) have no venom at all. ____________________________________________________ George Hammond Graduate Student Research Assistant, Animal Diversity Web <http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/> and Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Biology and Museum of Zoology University of Michigan

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