Long Jawed Spider

Facts about Long-jawed spiders, "Scientific name for Long-jawed spider is Tetragnatha". Long Jawed Spider are elongated spider with Long Slender Legs, huge powerful Jaws and Long slender abdomen. They have eight eyes and their eyes are in two rows, they have three claws on each tarsus. The Long-jawed spider size vary with gender, as for female are (15 mm) and males are (11 mm). Long-jawed spider belong to the family of Tetragnathidae. There are 980 species of Long-jawed spider world wide. Their long Legs are stretched out in front and behind along a branch when the spider is resting.

Long-jawed spider lives in Meadows, Mashes, woodland edges and in green shrubs especially near water courses, like in the edges of swamps or over ponds and streams. The Long-jawed spider are mostly found in water as they can walk on water only by using two pairs of Legs together and they can even walk faster on water than on dry land with a speed of 4 to 6 inches per second (10 to 15 cm per second) and that the reason why they don't fear water contact.

Long Jawed Spider are unique when its come to building their Web, this is because comparing to other types of spiders they build their web at night and it's a small circular web and the web doesn't have straight lines as compared to other spider web. Their Web is always Parallel to the ground and both Male and Female build the web, but for Male when it reach sexual maturity it moves hunting and squatting other Long-jawed spider webs like those build by Female spiders.

Long-jawed spider feed on Insects.

Long-jawed spiders have oversize brains.
In the Long-jawed 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

Long-jawed 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 Long-jawed spider’s gland that makes the poison and the stomach, fangs, mouth, legs, eyes and brain. Long-jawed 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 Long-jawed spiders body is the abdomen and the abdomens back end is where there is the spinnerets and where the silk producing glands are located.

Their Life Cycle.
Long-jawed spider cycle is interesting, this is because the female adult mates and Lays eggs. The eggs are not taken any special care hence they are laid in several sac and at different times, the Young Long Jaw Spider hatches from eggs and with time, become tiny adults The Long Jaw Spider lives for less than one year. The most interesting thing is that the Female Long jawed spider has a special cavity that it use to keep the male semen to use them for many times.

The muscles in a Long-jawed 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 Long-jawed 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 Long-jawed spiders body doesn't get wet. It allows them to float, this is how some spiders can survive under water for hours. A Long-jawed 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 Long-jawed spiders leg has six joints, giving the spider 48 leg joints. The Long-jawed spider’s body has oil on it, so the spider doesn't stick to it’s own web.

A Long-jawed spiders stomach can only take liquids, so a Long-jawed 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.

A male Long-jawed 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 Long-jawed spider’s reproductive opening.

Long-jawed 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 spiders need to shed their exoskeleton. The Long-jawed 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. Know they have some room to grow. They stop growing once they fill this shell. Female Long-jawed spiders are usually bigger than males.
Female Long-jawed spiders lay eggs on a bed of silk, which she creates right after mating. Once the female Long-jawed spider lays her eggs, she will than cover them with more silk.

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.