Spiders are probably the most well-known arachnid, but did you know that scorpions, mites, harvest men and ticks also belong to the arachnid family? Arachnids have been around for over 500 million years – that’s a long time! All arachnids have eight legs, or four pairs of legs. Their bodies are divided into two parts – the head and the abdomen.
Arachnids live in almost every corner of the earth. Many of them spin webs. Some make bubble webs under the water. Arachnids lay eggs, but the eggs don’t go through metamorphosis like insects. Instead, most arachnid babies look like adults, just smaller.
Fun Facts about Arachnids for Kids
- Most spiders have eight eyes, but some have only two, four or six.
- All spiders have venom, but only a few kinds of spiders are dangerous to people. In the U.S., only two spiders have venom that can make people sick.
- Scorpions have a stinger and strong pincers to deal with prey.
- Most arachnids can only eat liquid food. They inject a special liquid into their prey that turns the prey’s insides to mush. Then they suck the mush out – sort of like a bug milkshake.
Arachnid Vocabulary
- Arachnid: an animal family that includes spiders, scorpions, mites, ticks and harvestmen.
- Metamorphosis: insect life cycle: egg, larvae, pupa, adult
- Venom: poison that is injected
- Prey: hunted animal
- Liquid: not solid
Learn More All About Arachnids
Have a look at this cool documentary video of different gigantic arachnids:
A video of the various arachnids that can grow more than the usual sizes of their kind.
Arachnid Q&A
Question: How many types of spiders live on the Earth?
Answer: Scientists have found over 30,000 kinds of spiders. They believe many more have not been discovered yet.
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Question: Do all arachnids spin webs?
Answer: Only spiders spin webs, and not all spiders spin webs.
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