Fourth Grade
Worksheets
WWW: The Wonderful World of Webs
All spiders have eight legs. All spiders are arachnids. All spiders make silk. But not all spiders are the same. There are more than 38,000 different species of spiders. Of those 38,000, only 13,000 make webs. These webs are all as unique as the spiders that make them.
Argiope spiders make their webs out of a special type of silk. The silk reflects ultraviolet light. The web is very hard for humans to see. Insects, however, can see this kind of light. Many flowers look a lot like this special web to insects. Often bees or wasps fly into these webs. The insects think that they are landing on a flower. They land hoping to find a snack. Unfortunately, when they land in the web, they become the snack!
Ogre-faced spiders use their webs in a different way. Every night, this spider uses a special type of silk to hang upside down. It hangs from a branch and looks for food. It also holds a special kind of web between its front legs. Eventually a tasty looking insect walks underneath the branch. The ogre-faced spider then drops its web. The web acts like a net and traps the midnight meal.
