Have you had an Unforgetable Experience with a Spider?

Most of us have had an unforgettable experience with a huntsman. Huntsman can grow as large as a full hand span, but its bite is insignificant. Quite often the huntsman live in houses behind a picture frame or under the bed, and at night come out and eat insects such as cockroaches.

I read recently some statistics that said every human during their lifetime consumes an average of six spiders at night while they are asleep, but I’m sure they didn’t mean six large huntsmen.
Spiders are fascinating creatures, with fascinating names. There are the huntsman, wolf spiders, ogre-faced spiders, (could be renamed Shrek spiders) golden orb, daddy longlegs (or vibrating spiders, called so because they sit and vibrate) spitting spiders, crab spiders, jumping spiders, burrowing spiders, water spiders, and many others. Many are unique to Australia, although they have relatives in similar families overseas.

Spiders have eight legs, and insects only have six. Of course, a leg or two more or less doesn’t really make much of a difference if a large hairy animal is crawling up inside your trousers.
Spiders mostly prey on insects. The jaws of a modern spider are used to grab and crunch a prey. Most spiders use poison to kill their victims. At the end of the jaws are two syringe-like structures that are hollow and very sharp. These are used to puncture the body of a victim and to inject the poison.

Primitive spiders have forwardly pointing jaws that move forwards and backward in contrast to the modern spider. Therefore they cannot crunch a prey. They wait until the prey contents are dissolved before they can suck it empty.