ISSN 1059-6518

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF SPIDERS

By Frank Hubbell, DO

Illustrations by T.B.R. Walsh

It is said that there are so many spiders in the world that you are never more that 10 feet away from one. With over 50,000 species of spiders this is probably true. However, there only a few that can harm humans. Even though there are only a few that are dangerous to humans, most people still have a disproportionate fear of itsy, bitsy, spiders.

Taxonomic rank of spiders:

Kingdom – Animalia

Phylum – Arthopoda

Subphylum – Chelicerata

Class – Arachnida

Order – Araneae

Family – there are 109 families of spiders

Species – there are 50,000 species of spiders

Note that spiders are members of the phylum Arthopoda, in the class Arachnida not Insecta. SPIDERS ARE NOT INSECTS.

There are 11 orders of the class Arachnida:

Listed below are the orders of spiders with examples of each order:

Acari – ticks and mites

Amblypygi – whip scorpions

Araneae – spiders

Opiliones – harvestmen or daddy longlegs

Palpigradi – tiny whip scorpions

Pseudoscorpions – tiny spiders with scorpion like with pincers

Ricinulei – hooded tickspiders

Schizomida – small spiders that live in the upper layers of soil

Scorpions – scorpions

Solifugae – camel, wind, or sun spiders

Thelyphonida – vinegarrons or large whip scorpions

This article will focus primarily on the order Araneae, spiders, and, in particular, the ones that are considered dangerous to humans.

  Read more