Spiders

Class Arachnida

Appearance

•  Body soft and small; 8 mm in length, but the 8 legs are long and may span up to 50mm.
•  Four pairs of legs.
•  Generally greyish–brown in colour.

Lifecycle

•  Eggs are laid in large batches in small silk cocoons.
•  The eggs hatch and the young are fed by the female for the first few days.
•  There are four moults, occurring at intervals of 1 to 4 weeks.
•  Adults may live for 2 years.

Habits

•  Feed on insects.
•  Objectionable only by their presence and their habit of spinning webs.
•  Beneficial as predators — all spiders are predatory; mainly preying on insects.
•  Larger spiders may try to bite humans if alarmed, but are generally incapable of piercing human skin.
•  Tropical spiders may be imported with goods — some may be dangerous to humans e.g Black widow (Latrodectus mactans).