Labyrinth Spider - Agelena labyrinthica
This spider is usually found low down in vegetation in a funnel web often in brambles, gorse and heather, In late summer the female will construct a chamber within the web which is made up of a complex maze of silken tubes that will contain her egg sac and will often be seen guarding the entrance. The spiders main primary function is to quickly immobilize and subdue its prey and start the digesting process. The venom can contain many different substances which can include amino acids, proteolytic enzymes and neurotoxic polypeptides. Once a spider has caught its prey and will want to eat its food the first step is to literally vomit a digestive fluid all over the food and then to chew the item with the jaws (chelicerae), then on to suck up the fluid back into the mouth together with the liquified meat. Some spiders can produce at least six different kinds of silk and if spiders were scaled to the same size as us it is said that the Web would be strong enough to catch a helicopter. It has also been claimed that a cable of silk as thick as a thumb woven from spider silk would be able to bear the weight of a jumbo jet. Unfortunately most of us have been brought up in life from young children to fear a spider and most will feel sorry for the bee straight away but how many feel sorry for the bee in a beak of a stunning looking Bee-Eater Bird or the Stickleback fish repeatably being hit on a branch before being swallowed down whole by a stunning blue King Fisher or even a earth worm that snaps in half when being pulled out of the ground by our friendly Robbin in our gardens. The answer is not many as all three do not have eight legs and look like a spider, its a funny old world that we live in.
Labyrinth Spider - Agelena labyrinthica
This spider is usually found low down in vegetation in a funnel web often in brambles, gorse and heather, In late summer the female will construct a chamber within the web which is made up of a complex maze of silken tubes that will contain her egg sac and will often be seen guarding the entrance. The spiders main primary function is to quickly immobilize and subdue its prey and start the digesting process. The venom can contain many different substances which can include amino acids, proteolytic enzymes and neurotoxic polypeptides. Once a spider has caught its prey and will want to eat its food the first step is to literally vomit a digestive fluid all over the food and then to chew the item with the jaws (chelicerae), then on to suck up the fluid back into the mouth together with the liquified meat. Some spiders can produce at least six different kinds of silk and if spiders were scaled to the same size as us it is said that the Web would be strong enough to catch a helicopter. It has also been claimed that a cable of silk as thick as a thumb woven from spider silk would be able to bear the weight of a jumbo jet. Unfortunately most of us have been brought up in life from young children to fear a spider and most will feel sorry for the bee straight away but how many feel sorry for the bee in a beak of a stunning looking Bee-Eater Bird or the Stickleback fish repeatably being hit on a branch before being swallowed down whole by a stunning blue King Fisher or even a earth worm that snaps in half when being pulled out of the ground by our friendly Robbin in our gardens. The answer is not many as all three do not have eight legs and look like a spider, its a funny old world that we live in.