Water Spider-silverback Or Spider-scuba diver

Insects, as a rule, live on land - in the rocks, in the forest on trees, in the sands. But there are special people who spend most of their lives under quiet water, where there is almost no current. Moving quickly enough overland, these spiders also swim remarkably well, and everything happens in them in a special, non-trivial way.

A fairly well-known water (water) silverback spider, which has the Latin scientific name Argyroneta aquatica , is leading such an unusual lifestyle. He weaves dome-shaped nests from his web to store a certain amount of air in this structure. Periodically, it replenishes it, bringing oxygen from the surface of the reservoir to the abdominal hairs, which are not wetted by water. Air bubbles, surrounding the abdomen of the spider, shine and become like silver droplets. For this resemblance to drops of dew spiders and nicknamed serebryankami.

In order not to rise to the surface for longer, the water spider (silver) also absorbs oxygen, which is dissolved in water and can penetrate into the domes created by it.

The research of these interesting spiders was conducted by Roger Seymour (Roger Seymour) - a scientist from Australia and Stefan Hetz (German biologist). They conducted experiments in the laboratory, consistently and regularly watching spiders placed in a special aquarium. It was already clear that the lack of oxygen spiders replenished from the outside, capturing it from the water, but it was unclear how such a method of delivering gas can fully provide life spider. Using a special cable to measure the concentration of oxygen, scientists have determined the amount of oxygen consumed by spiders and coming into the dome from the water. Further by simple mathematical methods it was calculated

Dissolved oxygen in the water, outside the dome, can not breathe. His pressure is greater than inside the woven web. But just it promotes the penetration of its molecules inside the dome. Entering this way of oxygen, it turned out to be enough spiders for a fully active life.

The size of the air dome of divers-divers can vary depending on the activity of its owner. The spider pursues potential prey and, catching it, arranges a meal inside the dome. It is enough for an insect to begin to absorb prey, as the dome begins to grow, which allows us to capture dissolved oxygen in a larger volume.

Being under water, silver-men do not feel a great need for oxygen, rather, on the contrary, they manage with small doses of oxygen. They consume three to four times less oxygen than usually required by insects.