Dew Drop Spider

Facts about Dew Drop Spiders, "Scientific name for Dew Drop Spider is Argyrodes antipodianus". Dew drop spider belongs to the genus Argyrodes. They are seen worldwide. The biological termination according to their food is kleptoparasites. They actually steal the prey of other parasites. The Dew Drop Spider can weave their own webs; still they like to break into webs made by other spiders. Some of the Dew Drop Spider stay there for life and a few hide within it just to snatch the prey away. The Dew Drop Spider main body and head has a silvery appearance hence they are popularly called as the silvery thieves in the biological linguistics.

Sometimes the relation between the host and the dew drop spider becomes mutual as the host doesn’t eat the smaller preys. Insects once trapped in a spider web die and they have to be eaten or cleaned up so that the next prey-intruder won’t have any idea about what happened there. The host lets the Dew Drop Spider eat the smaller insects on that account. Most Dew Drop Spiders are relatively small in comparison to other spiders (3-4 mm).

Most of the dew drop spiders are found in tropical regions. The Dew Drop Spider prefer large and clustered webs to small and isolated ones as they will have to hide amongst the true owners of the webs. A clustered web serves as an invisible layer for them. In case the Dew Drop Spider need to flee, it’s easier to disappear if they have chosen a clustered web. Less number of kleptoparasites is seen in isolated webs.

The name of the genus to which dew drop spiders belong comes from two Greek words such as “argyros” and “odes” meaning “silver” and “like” respectively.

The Dew Drop Spider have a sclerotized carapace that is round in front with three anterior teeth and two posterior denticles. They lack a pattern on their abdomen and also they have a different main body structure. Their male chelicerae aren’t enlarged, unlike others. The female Dew Drop Spider makes a globular shaped sac to lay eggs and waits in one place until they are hatched.

Dew Drop Spiders have oversize brains.
In the Dew Drop Spider the oxygen is bound to "hemocyanin" a copper-based protein that turns their blood blue, a molecule that contains copper rather than iron. Iron-based hemoglobin in red blood cells turns the blood red

Dew Drop Spiders have two body parts, the front part of the body is called the Cephalothorax-(the thorax and fused head of spiders). Also on this part of the body is the Dew Drop Spider’s gland that makes the poison and the stomach, fangs, mouth, legs, eyes and brain. Dew Drop Spiders also have these tiny little leg-type things called (pedipalps) that are next to the fangs. They are used to hold food while the spider bites it. The next part of the Dew Drop Spiders body is the abdomen and the abdomens back end is where there is the spinnerets and where the silk producing glands are located.

The muscles in a Dew Drop Spiders legs pull them inward, but the spider can't extend its legs outward. It will pump a watery liquid into its legs that pushes them out. A Dew Drop Spider’s legs and body are covered with lots of hair and these hairs are water-repellent, which trap a thin layer of air around the body so the Dew Drop Spiders body doesn't get wet. It allows them to float, this is how some spiders can survive under water for hours. A Dew Drop Spider feels its prey with chemo sensitive hairs on its legs and than feels if the prey is edible. The leg hair picks up smells and vibrations from the air. There are at minimum, two small claws that are at the end of the legs. Each Dew Drop Spiders leg has six joints, giving the spider 48 leg joints. The Dew Drop Spider’s body has oil on it, so the spider doesn't stick to it’s own web.

A Dew Drop Spiders stomach can only take liquids, so a Dew Drop Spider needs to liquefy their food before they eat. They bite on their prey and empty its stomach liquids into the pray which turns it into a soup for them to drink.

Dew Drop Spiders do not have a skeletons. They have a hard outer shell called an exoskeleton-(a rigid external covering for the body in some invertebrate animals). The exoskeleton is hard, so it can’t grow with the spider. The young Dew Drop Spiders need to shed their exoskeleton. The Dew Drop Spider has to climb out of the old shell through the cephalothorax. Once out, they must spread themselves out before the new exoskeleton will harden. Now they have some room to grow. They stop growing once they fill this shell. Female Dew Drop Spiders are usually bigger than males.
Female Dew Drop Spiders lay eggs on a bed of silk, which she creates right after mating. Once the female Dew Drop Spider lays her eggs, she will than cover them with more silk.

A male Dew Drop Spider has two appendages called "pedipalps" a sensory organ, instead of a penis, which is filled with sperm and insert by the male into the female Dew Drop Spider’s reproductive opening.

Spiders belong to a group of animals called "arachnids", mites and Scorpions and a tick is also in the arachnid family. An Arachnids is a creature with eight legs, two body parts, no antennae or wings and are not able to chew on food. Spiders are not insects because insects have three main body parts and six legs and most insects have wings.

The Arachnids are even in a larger group of animals called "arthropods" an invertebrate animal of the large phylum Arthropoda, which also include spiders, crustaceans and insects. They are the largest group in the animal world, about 80% of all animals come from this group. There are over a million different species. There are more than 40,000 different types of spiders in the world