All You Need to Know About Spiders

Preface
Acknowledgements
Contents
Authors
The Association for the Promotion of Spider Research
Part IFacts on Structure and Function
1 Getting to Know You: A First Look at Spiders
1.1 Eight Legs and a Wasp Waist
1.2 An Armoured Skin, Old Maids and Skeletal Sensing
1.3 Great Legs
1.4 Two Groping Penises on the Face
1.5 Poisoners and Drinkers
1.6 Why Spiders Do not Eat Dumplings
1.7 About Blue-Blooded Starvelings and Why You can’t Strangle Spiders
1.8 Love on and for Oneself: Why Spider Males Masturbate Before Sex
2 How Do Spiders See?
2.1 Number and Arrangement of Eyes
2.2 Eye Structure and Function
2.3 Colour Vision
2.4 I See Something You can’t See: Polarized Light
2.5 Sight and Behaviour
3 How Do Spiders Hear, Smell, Taste and Feel?
3.1 Hairy Creatures with Sensitive Biosensors
3.2 How Spiders “Hear”
3.3 Spiders Are also Sentient Animals
3.4 Spiders Are Real Gourmets—Not Only in Their Choice of Food
3.5 The “Sense of Smell” of Spiders—An Ongoing Mystery
3.6 Damp, Dry, Warm or Cold?
3.7 How Spiders Communicate with Each Other
4 Muscles and Hydraulics: How Spiders Move
4.1 Fluid Pressure Instead of Muscle Power
4.2 Running
4.3 Jumping
4.4 Rolling
4.5 Flying
5 How Can Spiders Grow Despite an Exoskeleton?
5.1 What is an Exoskeleton?
5.2 Step-Wise Growth Thanks to Moulting
6 Poison Without Sting: The Weapon of Spiders
6.1 Production and Function of Spider Venom
6.2 Composition of Spider Venom
6.3 Spider Bites
6.4 Spider Bites in Europe
6.5 Spiders Poisonous to Humans Worldwide
7 Silk for Many Purposes: The High-Tech Material of Spiders
7.1 Not Only Spiders Produce Silk
7.2 What Is Silk Made of?
7.3 How Is Silk Produced?
7.4 Spinning Apparatus
7.5 What Do Spiders Use Silk for?
7.6 Silk Types
7.7 Adhesive Threads and Hackled Threads
7.8 Mechanical Properties
7.9 Applications of Spider Silk
7.10 Artificial Spider Silk
8 Just Sit and Wait? Far from It! Catching Techniques of Spiders
8.1 Active Hunters—The Vagabonds and Athletes
8.2 Lurking Hunters—Well Camouflaged and Patient
8.3 Net Builders—The Bondage Artists
8.4 Orb Webs—In the Flight Path of Insects
8.5 Construction of the Orb Web—Genetically Programmed, Adapted to the Situation
8.6 Reductions of the Orb Webs
8.7 Kleptoparasitism—Unwanted Guests on the Web
9 How Spiders Eat: Feeding Through the Straw
9.1 Digestion Outside the Body
9.2 Absorption of Nutrients in the Body
9.3 Waste Disposal
10 Pretty Special: Sex with Spiders
10.1 Search and Find
10.2 Courtship Displays in Great Profusion
10.3 Sex in All Imaginable Positions
10.4 Competition of the Sexes
10.5 Brood Care also Exists in Spiders
Part IIWe are Living in a World of Spiders
11 Some like It Cold: How Spiders Survive Adverse Seasons
11.1 Arrested Development in Winter
11.2 Adaptation to Cold and Wet Conditions
11.3 Life in Winter
11.4 Living at the Limit
12 Camouflage and Deception: How Do Spiders Defend Themselves Against Enemies?
12.1 Camouflage and Deception
12.2 When the Specialists Come
12.3 Microorganisms as Enemies
13 Useful or Irritating? The Importance of Spiders in Our Environment
13.1 Spiders Are Versatile Predators
13.2 Ecological Importance of Spiders
13.3 Can Spider Deployment Be Targeted?
13.4 Threats to Spiders and Countermeasures
13.5 What Can We Do for Spiders?
14 Lots of Them and Everywhere: Species Richness of Spiders
14.1 Individual Density
14.2 Species Numbers
14.3 Europe and the World
15 Globalization, or the Worldwide Dispersal of Spider Species
15.1 What Are Non-Native Species?
15.2 How Are Spiders Imported?
15.3 How Many Non-Native Species Have Become Established?
15.4 What Are the Negative Impacts of Non-Native Spiders?
16 My Home is My Castle: Common Spiders in and Around the House
16.1 The Long-Bodied Cellar Spider Pholcus phalangioides
16.2 The Large Woodlouse Spider Dysdera crocata
16.3 The Common Spitting Spider Scytodes thoracica
16.4 The Large House Spider Eratigena atrica
16.5 The False Wolf Spider Zoropsis spinimana
16.6 The Yellow Sac Spider Cheiracanthium mildei
16.7 The Rabbit Hutch Spider Steatoda bipunctata
16.8 The Zebra Spider Salticus scenicus
16.9 The Common Purse Web Spider Atypus affinis
16.10 The Wall Spider Brigittea civica
17 Who’s Who in the Neighbourhood: Common Spiders in the Garden and its Surroundings
17.1 The Common Forest Wolf Spider Pardosa lugubris
17.2 The Common Ground Wolf Spider Trochosa terricola
17.3 The Common Labyrinth Spider Agelena labyrinthica
17.4 The Nursery Web Spider Pisaura mirabilis
17.5 The Common Crab Spider Xysticus cristatus
17.6 The Flower Crab Spider Misumena vatia
17.7 The Yellow-Legged Sun Jumper Heliophanus flavipes
17.8 The Wasp Spider Argiope bruennichi
17.9 The Garden Spider Araneus diadematus
17.10 The Bridge Spider Larinioides sclopetarius
Part IIIOur Emotional Attitude Towards Spiders
18 Big Fear of Small Animals: Where Our Fear of Spiders Comes from
18.1 Are Spiders Dangerous?
18.2 Frequency of Arachnophobia
18.3 Symptoms of Arachnophobia
18.4 Causes of Arachnophobia
18.5 Arachnophobia is Curable
18.6 Other Therapeutic Approaches
19 Concerning a Tense Relationship: Of Humans and Spiders
19.1 Medieval Superstitions
19.2 The Alleged Toxicity of Tarantulas
19.3 Urban Myths—Modern Legends
20 Spiders as Pets?
20.1 Should I Invest in Exotics?
20.2 Should I First Look Around in My Own Environment Instead?
Appendix
How to Identify Spiders?
References
Recent Reviews
Internet Resources
Identification Books
Individual Works, Special Literature, Other Works
Index