NANFA-- Diving Spiders

DasArm_at_aol.com
Fri, 11 Feb 2000 00:23:27 EST

I saw an interesting segment about diving spiders, Arguenetta (not sure about
spelling). It was on an Animal Planet Safari episode entitled "Insects: The
Crawling Kingdom" (or something like that). It showed this great video
footage of diving spiders utilizing these underwater diving bells like a
diver's oxygen tank; it would go inside it to eat damselfly larvae that it
had caught. It would periodically refill the bell with more air, it would go
up for air itself, and it also spun webs underwater, yet still pursue its
prey underwater. It was somewhat unusual in that its abdomen looked like a
rounded ball of glass. It is not to be confused with the fishing spider of
North America, which can go underwater for forty-five minutes by trapping
oxygen on hairs all over its body. The fishing spider spends more time out of
water than the diving spider does, and is larger and less spindly-legged than
the diving spider. What I am wondering is, does anyone know if the diving
spider is from North America? I didn't catch the location. I think that it
might be from Europe but I'm not sure.

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