Water spider
| Water spider | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Male water spider |
||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||
|
||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Argyroneta aquatica | ||||||||||
| ( Clerck , 1757) |
The water spider ( Argyroneta aquatica ) or silver spider is the only species of spider that does not live on land, but under water. Its range extends from the British Isles in the west to Japan in the east. The animals prefer clean lakes or slowly flowing waters. Since the water quality is impaired in many places by liquid manure and pesticides from agriculture, the stock is falling sharply. It is on the Red List of Endangered Species in the "Critically Endangered" category.
Appearance
The male water spider has a beige-yellow color almost all over its body. On the lower legs the color is rather dark red. The female is brown.
Way of life
It opens up this unusual habitat for a spider by collecting the air it needs to breathe under a tightly woven web in the bank zone. To take a breath, the spider stretches its hind legs and part of its abdomen out of the water and jerks back down completely. In doing so, she takes an air bubble that has got caught between the hair and legs and surrounds the abdomen with a silvery sheen downwards. Using one of the signal threads, she pulls herself to her air depot, where she strips the air bubble into her “ diving bell ” ( physical gill ). Most of this spider's life takes place in this air reservoir. By diffusion of the withdrawn is oxygen from the air bubble partially replaced.
hunt
When hunting small aquatic animals such as amphipods and water lice , she relies on signal threads that she has stretched in the immediate vicinity of her dwelling and that are connected to it. If one of the threads indicates movement, the spider rushes along the thread at lightning speed and overwhelms the prey with a venomous bite. Then she drags the catch into her shelter and sucks it out there.
The water spider is one of the few species in Central Europe whose bite is also very unpleasant for humans, comparable to a wasp sting .
pairing
At 1.0 to 1.5 cm, the male is only slightly larger than the female (0.8 to 1.5 cm). After mating, the female does not eat the male either, as is often claimed, but both live together for some time afterwards.
particularities
Because of its unusual way of life and the great endangerment of the species, it is shown in the logo of the Arachnological Society . In 2000 it was chosen as the first species in the then newly established “ Spider of the Year ” category .
Fossil (extinct) representatives of this genus are Argyroneta antiqua and Argyroneta longipes .
gallery
female
Female from the side
Courtship of two water spiders
Sketch of several copies
male
literature
- Heiko Bellmann : Cosmos Atlas Arachnids of Europe . 2nd Edition. Kosmos-Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-440-09071-X .
- Rainer F. Foelix : Biology of Spiders . 2nd Edition. Oxford Thieme, 1996, ISBN 0-19-509594-4 .
Web links
- Argyroneta aquatica in the World Spider Catalog
- Argyroneta aquatica , article in the Wiki of the Arachnological Society
- Water spider - breathing according to the principle of the physical gill
Individual evidence
- ↑ Crawling animals without shortness of breath in FAZ from June 22, 2011, page N2
- ^ Arachnological Society e. V .: Spider of the year 2000 - The water spider Argyroneta aquatica
Water spider (2000) | Wasp spider (2001) | Listspider (2002) | Great trembling spider (2003) | Green House Spider (2004) | Zebra jumping spider (2005) | Crab Spider (2006) | Common wolf spider (2007) | Angle spider (2008) | Triangular spider (2009) | Garden spider (2010) | Common Labyrinth Spider (2011) | Cave Wheel Web Spider (2012) | Common wallpaper spider (2013) | Common canopy spider (2014) | Vierfleck-Zartspinne (2015) | Cone spider (2016) | Crevasse spider (2017) | Fat Spider (2018) | Ant jumping spider (2019) | Edged hunting spider (2020)