Why
are spiders so hairy?
Despite
having eight eyes, many spiders can’t see much at all.
Instead, they use sensory hairs and pores of various sorts to
make sense of their world via touch, taste, moisture and vibration
sensations. Narrow flexible slits in the skin (cuticle) around
the leg joints sense web vibrations caused by struggling prey
and tell the spider the position of its legs when spinning a
web.
 Isopeda
montana Hogg
Australian
Tarantulas are also called Whistling Spiders because they whistle
when threatened. They do this by rapidly rubbing together modified
hairs on the mouthparts, to produce a high pitched whirring
sound. This sound, concentrated within the spider’s burrow,
may scare off predators.
Some
American Tarantulas use the hairs on their abdomen to protect
themselves against predators. When irritated or threatened they
rapidly brush their back legs across the hairy abdomen, sending
out a cloud of barbed hairs behind them. These get stuck in
the eyes or mouth of the pursuing animal and put it off the
chase.
South
American Tarantula
Many
hunting spiders (such as huntsman and jumping spiders) have
thick tufts of hairs at the ends of their legs. These hairs
give lots of clinging power and let the spider move about freely
on smooth surfaces like tree trunks, leaves, ceilings and glass.
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