Welcome to the Spider’s Home Page. Here you will find many interesting facts about spiders and we hope you will learn a great deal during your visit.

1. Click on the first box about Spider Information. This will take you to a page of general information about spiders. When you have finished reading this page, complete the Cloze exercise by filling in the missing words. You may refer back to the page to help with the answers.

Spiders are small, eight-legged creatures that are best known for spinning silk ________. All spiders spin _______ but some don't spin webs. __________ spiders spin a single line with a sticky end. Any insect near, gets ________ when the spider swings the sticky line near them. All spiders have ________ and most kinds have _________ glands. They use their fangs and poison glands to ___________ their food.

In Australia, the most dangerous spider is the _________-_____ with the Red-back, a type of Black __________ spider, also being dangerous. Spiders are __________ to people because they eat harmful __________. They eat grasshoppers and locusts which destroy ________. Spiders also eat flies and _______________ which carry diseases.

The life span of arachnids in ____________ areas is a single season, therefore they rely on _________ to perpetuate the species from year to year. In warm regions, certain groups (some scorpions and tarantulas) appear to live more than a _________ year, in fact some ____________ in captivity have survived for as long as 20 years.

There are more than _________ kinds of spiders. _________ believe there may be up to 50,000 to 100,000 kinds. Some are smaller than than the head of a pin but some are larger than a person's __________.

2. Now you’ve learnt a little bit about spiders, let’s have a look at some Interesting Facts about Spiders. Click on the next heading to read these. When you’ve read them, here are some questions for you to answer.

1. Is a Tarantula’s venom harmful to humans? _________________________________
2. What does a Tarantula throw at its prey? ____________________________________
3. Can spiders grow new legs? ______________________________________________
4. What spider is the same colour as the flower petals it hides amongst? _____________
5. When does the Funnel Web spider hunt? ___________________________________
6. Which spider gives a piggy back to its young? _______________________________
7. What is the greatest enemy of the Wolf Spider? ______________________________
8. Do male spiders build webs? _____________________________________________
9. In the Funnel Web spiders, which is more harmful, the male or female? ___________
10. Is there any medicine for the bite of a Wolf Spider? ___________________________

3. Now you’ve found out some interesting facts, let’s have a look at an Australian Spider, the Red-back. Click on that page and read about this fascinating arachnid. When you’ve finished, see if you can match up the beginning and endings of the sentences by drawing a line to the proper ending.

1. The Red Back’s close relative is                                                 a. eats the male.
2. The Katipo is the only venomous spider                                      b. of web for her eggs.
3. In 1987, the Brown Widow Spider was found                            c. in Summer.
4. Red-backs are very common                                                     d. as bright as the female’s.
5. The male is only about one-third                                                 e. in Brisbane.
6. After mating, the female                                                              f. is trapped against the skin.
7. The female spins up to 8 round balls                                           g. in New Zealand.
8. Most bites occur when the spider                                                h. young child ill.
9. A Red-Back’s bite could make a                                                i. the size of the female.
10. The male's markings are not                                                        j. the Black Widow spider.

4. Now have a look at the page about Year 5’s Red-Back. When you’ve read that page, do a drawing in the space below, of the bottle which is the Red-Back’s home now.

Also, list here, all the food that she has liked to eat in the time we have had her.
__________________________________________________________________________

Draw the bottle here, draw the Red-Back inside the bottle and her home too, if you like.

5. Next we’d like you to go to the Funnel Web Spider page. The Funnel Web is one of Australia’s most dangerous spiders. Read the page about it and then list 5 things that you thought were important or interesting about the Funnel Web.

1. _____________________________________________________________________
2. _____________________________________________________________________
3. _____________________________________________________________________
4. _____________________________________________________________________
5. _____________________________________________________________________

6. Our Other Spiders Pages have many different spiders on them. Go to that page and make a list of all the spiders you can read about here. Then see if you can identify these spiders from their pictures.
Spiders: __________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

Pictures:

6. Next we have a very important section, Spider First Aid. Read what do if a spider bites you and then answer these questions to see how much you’ve learnt.

1. What method is now widely used for the treating of spider bites? ___________________________________________________________________
2. What sort of bandage should you use for a spider bite? ___________________________________________________________________
3. What does this do to the flow of venom? ___________________________________________________________________
4. How should the patient be kept? ___________________________________________________________________
5. What could you use if you don’t have a bandage handy? ___________________________________________________________________
6. What should you put on after the bandage has been applied? ___________________________________________________________________
7. Should you take the patient to the doctor or try to wait for an ambulance? ___________________________________________________________________
8. Name two symptoms of a Funnel Web Spider bite. ___________________________________________________________________
9. How is the First Aid Treatment for a Red-Back Spider different to other spiders? ___________________________________________________________________
10. Name two symptoms of the bite of a Red-Back Spider ______________________________________________________________________

7. Now have a look at the Anatomy of a Spider. Study the diagram carefully. Now compare it to our diagram below and fill in the missing spider parts.

There are 14 missing parts if you are having trouble.

8. Now you can have a read of our Spider Letters, Poems and Stories. Would you like to make up some of your own? If you would, you could send them to us and we would be happy to publish them on our pages for others to share.

9. Now have a look at the two Spider recipes, Chocolate Spiders and Cookie Spiders. Read both these pages and see if you can answer the True/False questions about these recipes. You might also like to try making them for yourself. They are both delicious!!

(a) You need a large block of Dark Cooking Chocolate. (True/False)
(b) You need 2 teaspoons of Peanut Butter. (True/False)
(c) First you melt the chocolate in the pan. (True/False)
(d) You don’t have to stir it as it melts. (True/False)
(e) You have to be careful not to break the Noodle sticks. (True/False)

(a) You need 6 sunflower seeds. (True/False)
(b) You need 3 cookies. (True/False)
(c) A spider has 2 body parts. (True/False)
(d) Your spider needs 3 legs on each side. (True/False)
(e) You use candies for the eyes. (True/False)

10. Now we have just about finished exploring the Spider’s Pages. To finish off, find your favourite spider and draw a picture of it below. Try to label as many of its parts as you can.

What was your favourite spider? ____________________________________________

Why was it your favourite? ________________________________________________