SEA SPIDER

If you suffer from arachnophobia – relax. These knobblykneed creatures aren’t actually spiders but a separate class, known as pycnogonids. They’ve been around for hundreds of millions of years, and simplicity is the key to their success. “They’re all legs and no body,” says Bray. They have no gills or digestive organs, and use a proboscis to suck the juices from anemones. Tiny sea spiders inhabit rock pools around the UK, but down in the deep, giants can have 60cm leg spans. They walk across the seabed and occasionally drift spread- eagled on the current. Males carry fertilised eggs glued to their bodies.