John Wood - Spiders

Published in 2020 by KidHaven Publishing, an Imprint of Greenhaven Publishing, LLC 353 3rd Avenue Suite 255 New York, NY 10010 2020 Booklife Publishing This edition is published by arrangement with Booklife Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer. Edited by: Kirsty Holmes Designed by: Jasmine Pointer Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Wood, John. Title: Spiders / John Wood. Description: New York: KidHaven Publishing, 2020. | Series: Tiny things, big impacts | Includes glossary and index.

Identifiers: ISBN 9781534532892 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781534532915 (library bound) | ISBN 9781534532908 (6 pack) | ISBN 9781534532922 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Spiders--Juvenile literature. Classification: LCC QL458.4 W663 2020 | DDC 595.44--dc23 Printed in the United States of America CPSIA compliance information: Batch #BW20KL: For further information contact Greenhaven Publishing LLC, New York, New York at 1-844-317-7404. Please visit our website, www.greenhavenpublishing.com. For a free color catalog of all our high-quality books, call toll free 1-844-317-7404 or fax 1-844-317-7405. PHOTO CREDITS All images are courtesy of Shutterstock.com, unless stated otherwise. SPIDERS CONTENTS: WORDS THAT LOOK LIKE THIS ARE EXPLAINED IN THE GLOSSARY ON PAGE 31. SPIDERS CONTENTS: WORDS THAT LOOK LIKE THIS ARE EXPLAINED IN THE GLOSSARY ON PAGE 31.

MEET THE SPIDER This is a spider. Like other bugs, spiders are much smaller than us. However, unlike some other bugs, spiders change the world every day. They might seem unimportant, but without them our lives would be very different indeed. Spider Sizes Spiders are a very group of creatures. In some places in the world, most spiders are small and wont hurt you.

In other places, like Australia, spiders can be very big and dangerous. Giant Huntsman Spider THE GIANT HUNTSMAN HAS THE BIGGEST LEG IT IS 12 INCHES (30 CM) ACROSS! THE SAMOAN MOSS SPIDER IS ONE OF THE SMALLEST, AND IS ONLY 0.3 MILLIMETER ACROSS. Silk Every spider is able to make a material called silk. Spiders have inside their bodies that create the silk. The spider pulls the silk out of its body through body parts called spinnerets. There are many different types of spider silk.

A single species of spider can make up to eight different types of silk, each one pulled through different spinnerets. SPIDER SILK IS TOUGHER THAN STEEL. IT MIGHT NOT SEEM LIKE IT BECAUSE SPIDERS SPIN A SMALL, THIN AMOUNT TO MAKE THEIR WEBS. MOST LINES OF SILK ARE ONLY 0.001 TO 0.004 MILLIMETER THICK. From Babies to Bungee Jumps Some spider silk is tough and stretchy. This can be used as a bungee rope that the spider travels down, or it can be used to build the frame for a web.

A stickier type of silk is used to fill in the web. This is what catches food for the spider to eat. A softer type of silk is used to wrap up food and spider babies. Spider babies are called spiderlings. A WORLD WITHOUT SPIDERS A Webless World If there were no spiders, there would be no webs, either. Of all the species of spiders, about half of them make webs to trap their food.

There are many different types of webs. The most common is an orb web. Orb Web FEMALE SPIDERS ARE USUALLY MUCH BIGGER THAN MALE SPIDERS. Net-Casting Spider Some spiders make very strange-looking webs. The net-casting spider spins silk between its front legs and creates a net. Liquefied Insects Before eating, spiders vomit juices on or into their . Liquefied Insects Before eating, spiders vomit juices on or into their .

The juices turn creatures from solid to liquid like turning food into drink. The spiders then suck up the soupy body parts and insides. Out of 40,000 species of spiders, theres only one that eats plants. Every other type of spider only eats other creatures. See You Later, Spiders If all the spiders disappeared tomorrow, nobody knows what would happen for sure. Maybe humans would find a way to replace spiders and solve all the problems.

But what if we couldnt? Throughout this book, we are going to take a look at what might happen in a world without spiders. 100 INSECTS AND COUNTING An Insects Worst Nightmare Most spiders eat insects and they eat a lot of them. Although we dont always notice spiders, we would notice insects if spiders werent there. Spiders eat around 2,000 insects a year. Houses would be crawling with insects if it werent for spiders. Circle of Life Animals eaten by other animals are called prey.

Animals that eat other animals are called predators. Spiders are both predators and prey. As long as predators like spiders are around, the number of insects will be controlled. Perfect Predators Out of all the creatures that eat insects, spiders are probably the most important. This is because they are very, very good at it. Spiders are one of the top predators in the world, alongside humans.

Altogether, spiders eat 440 million to 880 million tons of insects every year. There are 27.5 million tons of spiders in the world. They are found on every continent except Antarctica. ALL THE HUMANS IN THE WORLD WEIGH AROUND 440- 550 MILLION TONS. THIS MEANS THAT IT WOULD ONLY TAKE AROUND A YEAR FOR SPIDERS TO EAT EVERY HUMAN ON THE PLANET! BREAKING NEWS: FOOD RUNNING OUT What Are Crops? Crops are plants that are grown by humans in order to feed people. Farmers who look after crops worry about pests.