Felice Arrendondo, age 11, of Merrillville, Ind., for her question:
WHAT DOES THE ORDINARY SPIDER EAT?
The ordinary spider eats ordinary flies, plus a large assortment of other wandering insects that happen to get trapped in her silken web. She has thousands of spidery cousins, though not all of them spin nets to trap their food. However, all of them feed on meaty food in the form of liquid juices extracted from the bodies of their victims.
We share our wonderful world with more than 30,000 different spiders. Though some people cannot abide them, it's only fair to rate them among our friendly allies. For all spiders feed on insects and other pesky creatures. The ordinary spider feeds mostly on flies, though her diet includes insects as large as locusts and greedy grasshoppers.
The smallest spiders are no bigger than pinheads, and their victims include assorted miniature mites.
The giants of the family are as large as a human hand. Some of them dine on mice, lizards and small birds. However, though the spiders are classed as carnivorous meat eaters, none of them chews the meat or consumes the tough.portions, such as skin and bones.
As with all creatures, feeding depends upon a specialized mouth and digestive system. A spider's specialized mouth is just below her two, four, six or eight eyes. She has no teeth or chompers of any sort with which to chew her food. Instead, she has a sort of straw through which she sucks her food in liquid form.
Above the mouth are two furry fingers, ending in hollow claws. She uses these fingers to grab her prey. The hollow claws are her fangs, usually fed with poison intended to stun her struggling victims. When a fly or other victim is subdued, the spider uses her straw to siphon up the soupy juices from inside its body. She is limited to a liquid formula because her mouth cannot cope with solid food and her stomach cannot digest it.
However, she may inject digestive juices into her victims to dissolve some of the fleshy and muscular tissues. This soupy food can be sucked through the straw. After an ordinary spider has consumed an ordinary fly, there is nothing left but wisps of dry skin, legs and flaky wings.
The realm of spiders is ruled by the females. They are larger than the males and often consume their mates to provide nourishment for the developing eggs. only a few species weave those beautiful round webs of silken gray. Some weave tangled nets among the leaves; others weave silken traps in the ground. One species flings a sticky line to capture a passing insect. No matter how they trap their victims, all spiders live on meaty soups.