Spiders Quiz - MSN Encarta

Spiders are insects:

Brown Recluse Spider (Image credit: Larry Miller/Photo Researchers, Inc.)

True

False

Of the 40,000 species of spiders, about how many produce bites that may cause illness?

Black Widow Spider (Image credit: J.A.L. Cooke/Oxford Scientific Films)

300

3,000

What does the spider use its chelicerae for?

To catch its prey by stabbing it and injecting venom into it.

To produce silk for web building.

To transfer sperm to females during mating.

To taste things with its feet.

Which species of spider is renowned for its female's care of her spiderling brood:

Wolf spider

Jumping spider

Garden spider

Crab spider

Spider blood, also known as hemolymph, contains many blood cells with oxygen-carrying pigments called hemocyanin, which give the blood what color:

Red

Light blue

Chartreuse

Black

What is most unusual about the way in which spiders digest their food?

Generalized Anatomy of a Spider (Image credit: © Microsoft Corporation)

Digestion occurs entirely in the spider's stomach.

Trick question--spiders do not digest their food.

Digestion begins while the food is still outside their body.

Digestion occurs right before it exits the spider's anus.

Which statement about spiderweb building is false:

Varieties of Spider Webs (Image credit: Tecmap Corporation; Eric Curry/Corbis )

Spiders typically build their webs at night, completely relying on their sense of touch, not eyesight, during construction.

All spiders build their webs using the same exact procedure--the size of the web is the only significant variation.

Whether the web has a tight or wide mesh depends on the size of the prey the spider expects to capture.

Some species eat their old web before starting a new web, while others roll up the web and discard it as a tiny silk ball.

Spiders evolved about 400 million years ago. The oldest known spider fossil was found in rocks dating back to the Devonian Period (about 410 to 360 million years ago). Where was this fossil found?

Egypt

Australia

China

New York State

Some species of which type of spider are able to eat such large prey as frogs, lizards, and birds:

Jumping spider

Trap-door spider

Tarantula

Water spider

Which of these spiders is not dangerous to humans:

Black widow spider

Brown recluse spider

Bird-eating spider

Australian funnelweb spider