Table of Contents
How are sea spiders different from regular spiders?
The big ones are usually found at greater depths. One difference from land spiders is that sea spiders don’t have much of a body — they’re almost all legs. In fact, much of their internal organs are contained in the legs. What little body they do have consists of narrow segments with one or more pair of legs.
How do sea spiders behave?
BEHAVIOR AND REPRODUCTION Some longer-legged species are good swimmers, but most sea spiders prefer to crawl about colonies of anemones, corals, and other stationary, or unmoving, prey animals, or animals that are their source of food. Young seas spiders, or larvae (LAR-vee), usually swim freely in the ocean.
Do sea spiders have eyes?
Sea spiders don’t have lungs, they get oxygen through their exoskeleton. In the deep sea, they may also be lacking eyes. Despite their presence throughout all regions and depths of the ocean, sea spiders are understudied. Much remains to be learned about these fascinating marine arthropods.
What kind of spider is a sea spider?
(sea spiders) Sea spiders appear to be a sort of marine “spider,” but in fact their relationships are enigmatic. They may represent a very early branching of the chelicerate lineage. There are approximately 1000 described species of pycnogonids, all of which are marine.
How many eyes does a sea spider have?
Class Pycnogonida (sea spiders) Marine; narrow trunk of 4 to 6 segments; greatly reduced abdomen; cephalon (head) with proboscis bearing a pair of chelicerae, palpi, and egg-carrying legs; usually 4 pairs of walking legs attached to lateral projections of the trunk; tubercle with 4 eyes located dorsally…
What kind of predator is a sea spider?
Octopuses, crabs, birds, and other carnivorous marine animals are all potential predators. Sea spiders are not actually spiders, but rather classified as pycnogonids in the phylum Arthropoda.
How are sea spiders related to other arachnids?
Animals are divided into smaller groups based on shared characteristics. Sea spiders are a member of the phylum Arthropoda. This means they are related to insects, like ants or bees, as well as the arachnid group for which they are named, which contains spiders and centipedes.