UNDERWATER SPIDERS
UNDERWATER SEA SPIDER Following positive comments about the marvels of the ants, I thought I would continue the theme by drawing your attention to underwater spiders. God is not just a God of infinite greatness, but also a God of infinite smallness. As someone said maybe you should turn your telescopes into microscopes and reignite your sense of wonder at the incredible power of the God you serve. Don’t forget to subscribe to Creation Magazine and keep that sense of wonder fully ignited at all times. To read the author’s biography click on his name, Shaun Doyle, at the top of his article: Click link below to subscribe to Creation magazine https://creation.com/magazines Gibber! Gibber! Chugley: Underwater spiders Engineering marvel and evolutionary enigma by Shaun Doyle The diving bell spider (Argyroneta aquatica) is a unique spider. It is the only spider to live its life almost completely underwater. However, like all other spiders, it has ‘lungs’1 and can only breathe air. How does it manage to survive? It takes air with it underwater! When it goes to the surface, it sticks its abdomen into the air and, as it drags it back down into the water, millions of rough, water-repellent hairs on its abdomen, each with a waxy coating, trap air all around its abdomen.2 This thin layer of trapped air is called a plastron (figure 1). It takes this air underwater and weaves an underwater web to create its own little air bubble ‘cave’ underwater (figure 2).3 This ‘cave’ houses much more air than the plastron, so it takes several trips to create the ‘cave’. It can stay in this air bubble ‘cave’ for up to several days without going back to the surface. But when the oxygen begins to run out, it simply uses its abdominal hairs to move air from its ‘cave’ and exchange…