Water spider: Difference between revisions

Water spider, also known as ''A. aquatica'', is the one and only spider to live permanently underwater. It has a thin layer of oxygen trapped against it's body to breathe, and only goes to the water's surface to replenish oxygen [http://www.bogleech.com/bio-spiders2.html 7]. This particular spider's body is greatly adapted to water, hence the name, the water spider. This spider is: 1. the only spider that lives underwater the entirity of it's life, 2. one of the only spiders that the males tend to be bigger than the females in size, and 3. one of the only spiders where the male's devour the females after reproducing [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7088/is_3_33/ai_n28320550/ 4]. The bite of ''A. aquatica'' is not deadly, but to humans the bite can be very irritating and itchy for some time. They use this poison to capture their prey as they move swiftly through the water. Argyroneta is defined as "with a silver net", this is in the scientific name because of the thin layer of oxygen that surrounds the spider and mainly because of the air-bells that these species can create by going to the surface of the water and capturing air between there hind legs. The air bubble is formed and held by the spinnerets and the hind legs and brought down to a small bubble, the spider deposits the air inside of the small bubble, and repeat the process until the bubble is big enough for the spider to enter it [http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/Spiders/Argyronetidae/Argyronetidae.htm 8]