Summary: <p>As we get closer and closer to Halloween, the monsters get scarier and scarier! Okay, spiders are not technically monsters, but some people think they are. Don’t worry, I keep descriptions to a minimum so arachnophobes should be okay! This week we learn about some spider friends and some spider mysteries.</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-870" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/stolen-from-ScienceWorld-300x161.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="161"></p> <p>I stole the above cartoon from <a href="https://www.scienceworld.ca/why-arent-spiders-bigger">here</a>. I am sorry, Science World.</p> <p>A cape made from golden silk orbweaver silk:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-871" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/spidersilkcape.jpg" alt="" width="259" height="194"></p> <p><strong>Further reading and listening:</strong></p> <p><a href="http://karlshuker.blogspot.com/2010/08/spider-of-blue-dilly-dilly.html">Blue spiders</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.blazingcariboustudios.com/scorpions/">Varmints! Podcast scorpions episode</a></p> <p><strong>Show transcript:</strong></p> <p>Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.</p> <p>It’s almost Halloween! I’m on the third bag of gummi spiders, although they’ve changed the flavor from last year so I only eat the orange and yellow ones. The purple and green ones are in the bucket to give out to unsuspecting children.</p> <p>Speaking of spiders…yes, I’m going there. I realize a lot of people are scared of spiders, but they’re beautiful, fascinating animals that are associated with Halloween. Don’t worry, I will try hard not to say anything that will set off anyone’s arachnophobia. Besides, there are some mysterious spiders out there that I think you’ll find really interesting.</p> <p>First off, you don’t have to worry about gigantic spiders like in the movies. Spiders have an exoskeleton like other arthropods, and if a spider got too big, some researchers think its exoskeleton would weigh so much the spider wouldn’t be able to move. Not only that, spiders have a respiratory system that isn’t nearly as efficient as that of most vertebrates, so giant spiders couldn’t exist because they wouldn’t be able to get enough oxygen to function.</p> <p>Specifically, some spiders have a tracheal system of breathing, like most insects and other arthropods also have. These are breathing tubes that allow air to pass through the exoskeleton and into the body, but it’s a passive process and spiders don’t actually breathe in and out. Other spiders have what are called book lungs. The book lung is made up of a stack of soft plates sort of like the pages of a book. Oxygen passes through the plates and is absorbed into the blood, which by the way is pale blue. This is also a passive process.</p> <p>In other words, that picture that’s forever popping up on facebook of the enormous spider on the side of someone’s house, it’s photoshopped. In fact, pretty much any photo you see of a gigantic spider or insect or other arthropod is either photoshopped or made to look bigger by forced perspective. Also, spiders with wings are photoshopped, because no spider has ever had wings, even fossil spiders all the way back to the dawn of spider history, over 300 million years ago. So that’s one less thing to worry about.</p> <p>Spiders live all over the world, everywhere except in the ocean and in Antarctica. The smallest spider known is .37 mm, so basically microscopic. It lives in Colombia and basically lives out its whole life not knowing most things about the world, li</p>
