h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Arachnids - A2546417
Author: Hussassan the Silicon Samurai - Proud User of Alabaster - U200779

No errors in GuideML! Woohoo!

This looks good on first reading - comprehensive and accessible.

Only criticism is the repetition of the description of eyes at para 5 of anatomical features and para 3 of spiders.

Noggin

Very nice entry Hussassan, and one of interest to me - I used to have a for a pet, a Red-Kneed Tarantula It died a long time ago Anyhoo.

"in practice, however, most invertebrates have no bones at all. They are members of the phylum"
You might want to replace 'They' with 'Arachnids' to make it clear that you're only talking about arachnids, and not 'most invertebrates'.

What's 'chitinous'? Perhaps a brief footnote to explain?

Aren't pedipalps also used in reproduction? At least, in tarantulas they are.

"The heart pumps blood, which flows out a number"
Is there a missing 'of' there?

"is covered with a tough carapace, and the abdomen often is"
I think 'is covered with a tough carapace; the abdomen often is too' might work better... maybe not.

"many arachnids have soft spots in the abdomen which allows it to stretch"
'allow them to'

"The are the most common and the most useful, eating insects that would otherwise cause disease"
That doesn't make a whole lot of grammatical sense. Would you like to reword it? I can't offer you any suggestions because I'm not entirely sure what it's meant to say.

"Spiders have no brains"
Neither does my cat How about 'Spiders do not have a brain as we recognise it'?

"at the base of their abdomens"
I think it's incorrect to use the plural of a noun in that sort of instance - 'at the base of their abdomen' is better usage. Probably. Anyone else help me out with that?

"spider's silk is actually stronger than steel"
No it isn't. I can pull spider webs apart, but I can't do that with steel, not even steel wire. Spider silk however is *proportionately* stronger than steel.

"Signature spiders each spin a unique pattern in a part of their web, and this pattern is as unique as a fingerprint"
I reckon you can easily lose the first 'unique'.

cue - cure

"tooth venom"
I thought spiders didn't have teeth. Wouldn't just 'venom' be ok? Is there actually venom on the hairs?

Throughout the entry, I believe that spiders names should be capitalsed - Black Widow, Trapdoor Spider, Bird-Eating Spider, etc.

"As a matter of fact, only some snakes are worse to be bitten by"
I think that needs some attention. Try 'can kill a human in just a few hours, making it more deadly than many venomous snakes'.

"Another type of spider, the recluse spider"
'Another type of poisenous spider, the recluse spider'

"While harmful, it is only dangerous to children"
This is true. I have a friend who is a tad shy of 7 feet tall, and he has to sleep on the floor because he can't afford to get a bed made to order. Brown Recluse spiders are common in south Texas, and three or four times a year he wakes up with very unpleasant looking bite on his leg, which over a period of days turns into an even more unpleasant looking bruise. To the best of my knowledge he has never once died

"and tend to have five eyes: two large, powerful ones for hunting, and five little ones for sensing changes in light"
That makes seven

"it swells up to hundreds of times its former size"
I know they can get pretty big, but isn't hundreds something of an exaggeration? Further down the entry for instance, you say "females who are about to lay eggs can suck up to 100 times their own body mass". That's *one* hundred, not hundreds.

"its spray is accurate over 500m"
That's about a quarter of a mile isn't it? I can visualise a 400m running track, and I honestly can't see how a creature just over an inch long could thow venom and be accurate over 100m, let alone five times that distance. I'm no expert in these matters though and I'm prepared to be corrected.

"They eat anything that moves - worms, spiders, insects, scorpions, other windscorpions, small lizards, salamanders, birds, and mice"
Elephants? Cats? Tornadoes? Flags? Motorbikes? They all move.

I thought I saw a 'they' with a missing 'y' in there too, but now I can't find it


Scout

I found this entry very interesting and helpful! Have just finsihed an entry of my own A2548857 and havreferenced your own entry as I was very impressed!
PGHF

Thanks for all the help everyone, especially Gosho . As regards spider's brains, they are not actually brains, just little clumps of nerves, though perhaps I should clear that up.

Great entry, Hussassan!

Nice entry Hussassan

Hi Hussassin,

liked this very much, great entry!

Perhaps you might add some info in the 'Ticks' section - in middle and east Europe, encephalitis, meningitis and Lyme disease (dunno whether these are the correct English terms) are the main deseases you can get from a tick bite. This may vary; there are maps available where tick-induced meningitis, for instance, has occured in Germany. Some links:

http://familydoctor.org/705.xml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/travel/before_jabs.shtml
http://www.zeckenbiss-borreliose.de/ (German, with maps, click on the FSME/Borreliose link)

SchrEck Inc.

Oops, mis-spelled your name. Sorry.

Like I said earlier, I really liked this, but on re-reading I thought of a few things that you might like to add...or not

You mention some environments that arachnids are found in, but where do they live in particular? Trees? Caves? Water? Houses? Ground? Maybe something on the fact that arachnids are highly adaptable and can live almost anywhere?

While you say that the vast majority of spiders are not dangerous to humans, (and I agree, I am fond of ickle money spiders) you don't go on to mention the ones that are. A section on this may be interesting. I believe there are some scorpions that are also quite deadly.

Being Australian by birth I have come across a wide array of arachnids, both large and small http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/australian/Spidaus.html. The black widow spider in particular, or as it's called in Oz: the Red-Back. It is something of a legend down-under with many people bitten by the creature after sitting on the loo! It likes to live in dark secluded places like outdoor toilets and so regular are attacks that most Casualty Units in Australia have anti-venom on hand. This also goes for the Sydney Funnel-Web Spider see: A615386, which is notorious for unwarranted attacks and has been known to kill small pets and also small children after the victim has been bitten. Horrible I know, but probably deserves a mention.

You talk in great length about the spider family of arachnids, yet the scorpion family is just as large and interesting. I'm not sure if there should be more in this entry or whether another Guide Entry on scorpions alone is warranted. Perhaps in your entry, as this would mean Guide Entries on Ticks, Mites and all other arachnids you've mentioned and that'd defeat the purpose of an entry on arachnids, wouldn't it? I've answered my own question then haven't I? Anyway, more on scorpions please, as they're just as funky as spiders!

Ticks are perhaps the things that I hate the most as there is a particular variety found in the Australian rainforests that has a habit of just dropping from trees onto you without you knowing, then embedding itself under your skin, and munching away...

Another option you might take is to link some other Entry Guides (A840728 is good) and some outside websites. The Science and Nature section of BBCi is also rather good, with an accessible children's section as well. Kids love Spiders, as this Entry appealed to my cousin, who wanted to know more after reading it! And while I am sure much of your entry is self obtained knowledge, some of it must have come from other places, credit them as I like to do further reading

I know it sounds a bit like I'm saying "you didn't say This, or That", so on a positive the information on anatomy of arachnids and biological functions is brilliantly written . It's not too technical and is wonderfully descriptive.

Brill Entry, look forward to seeing it pushed into the Guide!
PGHF

Good article!

A few things though:

"However, if spiders are arachnids, then why the separate words?"

Think you should change this to say ". . . if arachnids are spiders . . ."

mainly because spiders ARE arachnids but arachnids aren't necessarily spiders.

I thought daddy-long-legs' had wings. I could well be mistaken there though . . .

2/3

In the UK and Ireland, the term "daddy long legs" always refers to craneflies, never to harvestmen. But I can see how a harvestman might be called a daddy long legs.

Are you sure it is harvestmans? I always say harvestmen.

ahh . . . so thats it.
was beginning to think that either I'd imagined wings OR I was confused.

2/3

*"its spray is accurate over 500m"
That's about a quarter of a mile isn't it? I can visualise a 400m running track, and I honestly can't see how a creature just over an inch long could thow venom and be accurate over 100m, let alone five times that distance. I'm no expert in these matters though and I'm prepared to be corrected.*

Sorry, that was a typo, it was supposed to be 500cm.

"in middle and east Europe, encephalitis, meningitis and Lyme disease (dunno whether these are the correct English terms) are the main deseases you can get from a tick bite"

OK, I'll put that in.

"While you say that the vast majority of spiders are not dangerous to humans, (and I agree, I am fond of ickle money spiders) you don't go on to mention the ones that are. A section on this may be interesting"

There is a section subheaded 'Dangerous Spiders.'

"Another option you might take is to link some other Entry Guides (A840728 is good) and some outside websites"

Yeah, I've been meaning to do that.


"In the UK and Ireland, the term "daddy long legs" always refers to craneflies, never to harvestmen. But I can see how a harvestman might be called a daddy long legs."

I live in Ireland and have always used daddy-long-legs for crane fly. since it can be used for either, I prefer the 'proper' names.

"Are you sure it is harvestmans? I always say harvestmen."

Could be either, I suppose. However, 'harvestmen' could also refer to me who are harvesting, but 'harvestmans' never would.

Great!

breath -> breathe, I think (in the beginning)

Are there antidotes for spider/scorpion venom?

HELL

PS: I had a spider as a pet (its name was Floyd). In Brazil there are many annoying moskitoes. If you let a spider live in a net in some corner of your room (like Floyd did) you will have less moskitoes coming into your room. Maybe they sense the spider and avoid the room.

"Great!"


"Are there antidotes for spider/scorpion venom?"
Yeah, they're called antivenoms, different for each species.

Could you add that information to the Entry? It would make readers like me feel a little better after reading that a spider bite can kill you in a matter of hours...

H

It's not the killing you you need to worry about, it's the jumping on your back and turning invisible and controlling your thought processes ...

Great entry, anyway.

Mol

Just made an update, the entry now has info on pseudoscorpions and a little more on real scorpions.

Fascinating stuff; great Entry!

Just one thing: there seems to be something wrong with the 'dust mite' link; it takes me to the Front Page.