There’s only one species of spider in the world that spends its entire life underwater. Found in ponds across Europe and Asia, these small spiders have adapted to hunt insects and crustaceans below the surface to survive. As a joke, science often suggests that when competition is too high, you should flip the script. This spider seems to have taken that advice and made a 180-degree turn. It’s the diving bell spider or water spider, and you’ll be amazed at how it does this.
Diving Bell Spider: The Life of This Little Creature That Builds a Refuge Underwater
The water spider is a fascinating and unique animal that has remarkably adapted to underwater life. Its ability to live and hunt in a self-made bubble underwater makes it a unique and important inhabitant of wetland habitats. Primarily because these diving bell spiders have transitioned from living on land to living underwater by devising a kind of diving tank. Using silk to form a “bell,” the air-breathing spiders trap air in the hairs on their abdomens and legs at the water’s surface, then fill the bell with the trapped air, like an underwater lung.
And believe it or not, these spiders play an important role because they help regulate populations of smaller aquatic animals and are a critical link in the food chain.Water spiders primarily hunt small aquatic creatures like insect larvae and small fish. They wait in their diving bells until prey swims by, then quickly emerge from their bubble, capture the prey, and return to their bubble to eat. This hunting behavior is unique and demonstrates the water spider’s adaptability to its underwater environment.
The water spider’s reproduction is fascinating. The female lays her eggs in the diving bell. This safe environment protects the eggs from predators and provides them with enough oxygen. The young spiders stay in the bubble until they are sufficiently developed to survive on their own.
This story was written in Spanish by Perla Vallejo in Ecoosfera.