table of contents
- General
- Exceptions
- frequently asked Questions
A spider always has four pairs of legs, for a total of eight legs. Animals with fewer legs were usually injured by one of their predators and lost limbs in such an attack.
In a nutshell
- significantly more legs than almost any other living being
- Appearance is largely determined by the number of legs
- basically eight legs
- Difference from insects
- therefore its own species, which is called the arachnida
General
Spiders have their very own appearance that many people find disgusting or at least disturbing. One reason for this is that they have more eyes than other living things. In addition, they also have more legs than most other animals. Only the millipede moves on more legs. All spiders are equipped with four pairs of legs, so naturally they always have eight legs. This applies to tarantulas as well as tarantulas (Theraphosidae) or the domestic garden spider (Araneus). They use the legs
- for locomotion
- for climbing
- as a tool in network construction
- as a gripping or Catching tool
Note: Even if it is said again and again: Spiders are not insects, but rather form an arachnida of their own, which is clearly different from insects.
Exceptions
In the great outdoors or in the house, we often come across a spider that has fewer than eight legs. However, this is not a mutation or a mistake in nature, but mostly an injury. These animals usually have lost one or more legs. Usually an attack by a predator is the cause of this loss. Typical predators of spiders are:
- Birds
- Lizards
- snakes
Usually these predators try to catch a spider by grabbing a leg. The leg is often torn out. However, despite this considerable injury, spiders can continue to live and move further. Sometimes spiders simply shed one of their legs in the struggle for survival in order to gain time to escape. However, the leg then grows back within a relatively short time.
frequently asked Questions
Unfortunately, no reliable information is available about this. One can assume that spiders also feel pain, but the pain is likely to be much less than in a mammal.
Yes, there are actually spiders with ten or more legs. However, these animals have usually fled or left a laboratory. escape. At the University of Jena, for example, it has been possible to breed spiders with ten legs. However, this is then a being that has little to do with nature, but was created artificially in the laboratory.
This has to do with the regular moulting of the spiders. In the course of a molt, a lost leg usually grows back. So spiders with fewer than eight legs are often only a temporary phenomenon that does not last long.