Snorkelling spider pulls Houdini stunt to stay alive
Maybe you have seen your best action hero do this in the movies — holding his breath underwater while the enemy passes by with a deadly weapon until coming up gasping for air.
In the real world, it seems a dangerous move, but now a scientist from Binghamton University in New York has unveiled the mystery of a tropical spider’s bizarre antics that take this survival technique a step further.
Biological sciences professor Lindsey Swierk has discovered that a tropical spider species uses a “film” of air to hide underwater from predators for as long as 30 minutes.
Swierk observed a large tropical spider (Trechalea extensa) fleeing from humans and hiding underwater.
She had previously described a Costa Rican lizard species that was able to stay underwater for 16 minutes to hide from predators, but this particular species of spider was not known to use this tactic.
She said: “For many species, getting wet and cold is almost as risky to survival as dealing with their predators to begin with.
“Trechalea spiders weren’t previously known to hide underwater from threats — and certainly not for so long.”
The spider spent about 30 minutes underwater and while submerged kept a “film” of air over its entire body.
Swierk and her colleagues suspect the fuzzy hairs that cover its body help it to maintain this film of air.
This helps to prevent thermal loss while underwater, or to prevent water from entering the spider’s respiratory organs.
The hydrophobic hairs covering the spider’s entire body hold the film in place and, Swierk said, “it’s so complete that the spider almost looks like it’s been dipped in silver”.
According to Swierk, this observation provides new insight into how species can cope with the problem of finding refuge underwater.