Not only curious schoolchildren, but many adults are interested in the question: is a spider an insect or not? Indeed, at first glance it may seem that the answer is obvious, and spiders are one of the varieties of insects, but this is not so. They belong to a separate class of arachnids, because they have a lot of differences with insects.
Spiders appeared on our planet a very long time ago, about 400 million years ago. It is believed that they came from a crab-shaped ancestor. Insects appeared almost 100 million years later and created a separate class. Today, about 40 thousand species of arachnids live on the earth. If we examine in detail the anatomy of these creatures, then questions like "Is a spider an insect or not?" should not occur. Everyone knows that insects have six legs, but arachnids have eight, besides they have eight eyes, only some species have six or two. These creatures do not have teeth, but there are hook-shaped jaws with special channels designed for the penetration of poison into the victim’s body.
Doubts about whether the spider is an insect or not will disappear immediately if you consider how it eats. If praying mantises eat caught flies, then arachnids cannot do this because they have extra-intestinal digestion. They inject digestive enzymes into the victim, which turn the insect into a soup, and the spiders can only suck out the contents of the shell.
Many creatures know how to spin a web, but they will not succeed in being as strong and elastic as the victim trap that a spider prepares. Reproduction also forces these creatures to weave special cocoons to preserve the laying of eggs and small spiders. If we compare the web with steel, the first one will be five times stronger than the second, and pencil-thick threads will not be able to break through a plane crashing into the network.
It is not clear why many are pondering the question of whether a spider is an insect or not: there are a significant number of differences between the two classes. The body of these creatures is not divided into three, but only into two departments: the abdomen and cephalothorax. They make a web of fluid from the fluid secreted from the warts located at the end of the abdomen. From this material, spiders build houses for themselves, make an airplane carpet on which they travel long distances, weave cocoons for eggs, and hunt insects in nets.
These creatures move rather quickly through their nets, while mosquitoes, flies and other unfortunate ones simply stick to it. The fact is that spiders weave sticky and non-sticky threads, the former are needed to catch the victim, and they move along the latter. Even if they accidentally fall on the sticky part, they will not get confused, since their body has a fat coating.
Modern science has already given an exact answer to the question: “Is a spider an insect or not?” By distinguishing these creatures in a separate class. In the middle zone of Russia there are no arachnids dangerous to human life, although it is necessary to behave with them carefully. A spider will never attack first, it only defends itself or bites when frightened. A bite can only be accompanied by burning, severe pain and fever. But there are also dangerous representatives of this species: the tarantula and karakurt became most famous. Their bite causes general poisoning of the body, which sometimes leads to death.
