The Life of Spiders

The Life of Spiders

© 2017 Wendy Pye Publishing Ltd Written and designed by the Wendy Pye team

Photo credits:Shutterstock Inc.: ©–makuromi: Cover; ©–Cathy Keifer: pp. 1, 13, 17; ©–Melinda Fawver: p. 3; ©–Peter Waters: p. 5; ©–Dennis W. Donohue: p. 6; ©–D. Kucharski K. Kucharska: pp. 7, 18; ©–kurt_G: p. 8; ©–Ajayptp: p. 9; ©–Hellen Grig: p. 10; ©–kojihirano: p. 11; ©–TAGSTOCK1: p. 12; ©–Wojciech Lisinski: pp. 14–15; ©–Dr. Morley Read: pp. 16, 23 (top); ©–Bruce MacQueen: p. 19 (top); ©–Elliotte Rusty Harold: p. 19 (bottom); ©–Audrey Snider-Bell: p. 20; ©–zstock: p. 21; ©–Bo Valentino: p. 22; ©–Kathryn Willmott: p. 23 (bottom).

ISBN: 978-1-98-850924-2

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The Life of Spiders

Contents

What is a Spider? ....................... 2

Baby Spiders .............................. 8

Making Silk .............................. 10

Spiders’ Webs ............................ 12

Hunting and Eating .................. 16

Keeping Safe ............................. 18

Special Spiders......................... 22

Index ........................................ 24

Two body parts

Eight legs

What is a Spider?

A spider is not an insect. It is an

animal. It has eight legs and two parts

to its body. Because spiders eat insects

such as f lies, they are useful to people.

Spiders live in most countries. They

do not live in very cold places like

Antarctica and the Arctic.

2

3

The Huntsman spider has good eyesight so it chases, pounces, and sinks its fangs into the prey.

Fangs

Most spiders have eight eyes but

often can’t see very well.

They don’t have any bones because

their skin is hard. Spiders have fangs

to kill their prey.

Hard skin

4

Fangs

5

Spiders live wherever they can find

food. They live in the ground, in trees,

and in the water. They live on top of

mountains where it is cold. Spiders

also live in hot deserts.

Scorpion spiders are mostly found in deserts.

6

Some spiders live under water.

7

The wolf spider carries her babies on her back.

Baby Spiders

Spiders are born from eggs. The

female spider lays the eggs. She might

lay 100 eggs at a time.

When the baby spiders hatch, they

spin silk lines to f ly through the air to

a new life.

8

Baby spiders are called spiderlings.

9

Making Silk

All spiders make silk inside their

bodies. They use their silk to make

webs, to make lines to f loat from place

to place, to wrap up their dinner and

to make their egg sacs.

Some hunting spiders spin a long line

of silk across the ground. This “trips

up” an insect so the spider can catch it

for dinner.

10

The web of this large colorful golden orb spider can be up to three feet wide.

11

This spider spins its web upside down.

Spiders’ Webs

Some spiders build webs to catch

insects. The spider sits on the web and

waits for the insect to f ly into the web.

The silk in the web is sticky so the

insect can’t get away.

Because the spider has special hairs

on its legs, it doesn’t get stuck when it

goes across the web to eat its prey.

12

This wasp spider has caught an insect in its web.

13

14

Spiders’ webs are not all the same.

If a web breaks, the spider mends it

with new silk.

15

The spider covers the insect in silk to eat later.

Hunting and Eating

Spiders that cannot see very well make

a web and wait for insects to get stuck

in the web’s silk. They cover the insect

in silk to eat later.

16

This crab spider has caught a fly that is twice as big as it is.

Spiders with good eyesight don’t make

webs. They run after insects and catch

them, even big insects, like f lies.

Spiders also use camouflage to hunt.

They sit on a f lower or a leaf that is

the same color as they are, and pounce

when an insect comes by.

17

This spider is camouflaged on a branch.

Keeping Safe

Some spiders use camouflage to keep

safe. They may look like the f lower or

branch they are sitting on.

18

These spiders are camouflaged in the flowers. Can you see them?

19

The trapdoor spider lives in the

ground in a burrow. It makes a door at

the entrance to its burrow. The spider

uses silk to help the door open and

shut. The burrow is a safe place and a

place to store food.

The baboon spider has hairs on its legs that cause burning pain to its enemies.

20

Trapdoor

Spider

The trapdoor on this trapdoor spider’s burrow keeps it safe and dry.

21

A tarantula

Special Spiders

The biggest spider is the tarantula.

Some tarantulas chase and eat birds.

They look fierce with their hairy legs

and huge bodies.

Some spiders inject poison through

their fangs to kill their prey. Some can

bite people and make them sick, too.

The most poisonous spiders live in

Brazil and Australia.

22

The Brazilian wandering spider is one of the most poisonous in the world.

This is the redback spider. It lives in Australia. It is very dangerous to people.

23

Index

babies .........................................8–9camouflage .............................. 18–19eggs ................................................ 8eyes ................................................ 4fangs .................................... 4–5, 22insects ..................... 12–13, 16–17, 20poison .......................................... 22silk .................................8, 10–16, 18skin ................................................ 4spiderlings ...................................... 9tarantula ...................................... 22trapdoor spider ....................... 20–21webs ........................................ 10–16

24

Comprehension Questions for The Life of Spiders

• What do spiders have in common? What are some differences among spiders? (RI.2.1)

• Where do spiders live? (RI.2.1)

• What are spiderlings? How did the author explain the meaning of the word? (RI.2.4)

• What do spiders use their silk for? (RI.2.1)

• Do all spiders make webs? Explain how you know using evidence from the text. (RI.2.1)

• How are the pictures on page 21 similar and different? What information can you learn from these two pictures? (RI.2.7)

• How did the author make the information easy to understand? (RI.2.5)

• What information did you find most interesting or surprising? Explain why. (RI.2.1)

• Use the index to find information about the tarantula spider and reread. (RI.2.5)

A B C D E F G H I J K L MKindergarten Grade 1 Grade 2