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Underwater Spider Spins Itself an Aqualung
sciencehabit writes "In the ponds of northern Europe lives a tiny brown spider with a bubble on its back. The 10-millimeter-long Argyroneta aquatica is the only spider in the world that spends its entire life underwater. But just like land spiders, it needs oxygen to breathe. So every so often, it leaves its underwater web home to visit the surface and brings back a bubble of air that sticks to its hairy abdomen. It deposits the bubble into a little silk air tank spun for the purpose. This 'diving bell,' researchers have now found, is not just a repository. It's actually a gill that sucks oxygen from the water, allowing the spider to stay under for up to 24 hours."
I saw one while I was sitting on a park bench.
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
If it's a "gill", why is the bubble only good for 24 hours? Does it also diffuse back into the water over time, thus shrinking it?
Life is not for the lazy.
You know that's actually very awesome, more awesome than Aquaman then again it's not hard to be more awesome than Aquaman.
Sitting on a cob web
eyeing minnows with bad intent.
Water running down his setae
greasy palpae smearing mandibles.
Floating in the cold lake
Watching as the silly tadpoles run.
Feeding on a dead duck
spitting out pieces of his broken web.
Aqualung!
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Sometimes I like to try to guess what the evolutionary path of certain animals could have been.
This is one case where I go "WTF?".
They've (re-)discovered osmosis.
Spider breathes oxygen-rich air. Spider exhales air with low oxygen content. Air with lower oxygen content than the water pulls oxygen from the water. Isn't that amazing?!
I was eyeing one with bad intent
This is intelligent design in effect!
Can I light a sig ?
the only spider in the world that spends its entire life underwater
it leaves its underwater web home to visit the surface
I don't know about everyone else, but I'm more impressed that it is able to die when it leaves the water and then re-animate itself when it comes back.
Zombie Spiders!
This is what happens when people don't RTFA. The spider is not new, it's the research into the spider's behaviour that is new.
"Previous researchers thought the spiders had to replenish their air every half-hour, but as they report online today in the Journal of Experimental Biology, Seymour and Hetz found that the spiders can hang out near their bells for up to a day, waiting for prey while keeping safe from birds."
Not only the water breathing part, that also that its abdomen is on its back. Or is it the other way around?
This joke feels like a dead duck.
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
In Hungary we even had a cartoon series about this spider and it was my favorite, it was called "Aqua Spider - Maverick Spider"
Basically it shows the lives of various bugs and small animals around a lake and in it (under water) It was very educational, explaining what little critters were in a lake, what they did, how did the spider survived under water (real valid scientific explanations on a kids level)
There are two spiders, one of them is a regular one and the other is the Aqua Spider, the serious starts in the spring when the bus awaken and start their life, with the Aqua Spider going into the lake building his Aqua Lung by the end of the first part
Of course you never actually find out what spiders (or any of the animals) eat...except a few times when bugs are saved by the spiders from various evil bugs that eat little defenseless bugs...
You can see him with the air of bubble at the beginning and his "under water house" at 3:26
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDD50bsJTAs
Ew, you looked?
Probably not voluntarily, but hey, when it's a tweet from a congressman, you can't NOT look.
Today is red jello day - all workers must eat all of their red jello. Failure to comply will result in five demerits.
How does an air-breather possibly develop this mechanism to survive underwater?
I believe in evolution, but sometimes am simply astounded.
--
$tar -xvf
I was too busy at the bog warming my feet
(1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
That's what she said?
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
From observing swimming pool spiders myself I've noticed a lot of them carry a bubble of air when they are underwater. It seems to be a general behaviour amoungst spiders for breathing but it could be that the bubbles are just randomly trapped in their hair.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Okay, it requires oxygen to breathe, so it goes to the surface to get air.
They they say it's diving bell isn't just that, but an "aqualung" that allows it to get oxygen from the water.
If it can get oxygen from that water, why is it going to the surface then for oxygen?
Be seeing you...
I hardly ever log in, but I had to give this effort a comment.! Well done jollyreaper :-)
Me too; anyone who has lived in Sydney will know that "the Australian Funnel Web Spider" is often found in swimming pools, similar deal, they look like black marbles at the bottom of the pool. And yes they are deadly and yes they can bite under water! And to bust another myth, they can also climb stairs(carpeted). We has about 4 a year in the pool.
Have gnu, will travel.
It's old news that these aquatic spiders use gas diffusion to extract oxygen from the water. (Maybe the measurements done here are more precise--but the original article is behind a paywall, alas.)
A good explanation about nitrogen diffusing out of the bubble is found here (from possibly 2004): http://www.hansthiele.de/galerie/sonst/w-spinne.htm. I'll do a quick transcription.
The bubble (like the air) contains about 21% oxygen and 78% nitrogen. The proportion of these gases in the water is about the same (1/5th O2, 4/5th N2; N2/O2 ratio of 4:1).
This is the breathing cycle:
This cycle repeats; but since the spider uses slightly more O2 than is replenished, the N2/O2 ratio increases, that is, the bubble contains now more than 78% N2, thus the partial pressure of N2 is higher in the bubble than in the water: N2 diffuses out into the water. And since N2 is the main component of air, it makes up most of the bubble's volume. The bubble shrinks and, as such, becomes less efficient in gas diffusion. (Actually, since the surface area increases relative to it's volume, it becomes more efficient in relative terms, but there's too little air (N2/O2 mixture) left for the spider to breathe in absolute terms ...).
On another note, I loved to play with the spiders in our garden pond when I was a child. They were really rather cute, but somewhat helpless once transferred to land ... but they never bit me; I read about their bite just a few years ago when I remembered about the old times and decided to read some stuff on these sweet eight-legged fellas.
That's why we sent you criminal lot there a few hundred years ago - you weren't expecting an easy ride were you? We had to dump you somewhere with the greatest proportion per capita of deadly creatures!
Back home here in England, about the deadliest animal we have here would be an overwieght blind cow that accidentally trod on you if you feel asleep in its field.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Did anyone else notice the similarity between this and the fantasy physics of the Spelljammer D&D setting? Specifically, read the paragraph Gravity and Air. Deathspider FTW!
Eying little girls with bad intent. /an underwater goat with an aqualung
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
That's why we sent you criminal lot there a few hundred years ago - you weren't expecting an easy ride were you? We had to dump you somewhere with the greatest proportion per capita of deadly creatures!
Back home here in England, about the deadliest animal we have here would be an overwieght blind cow that accidentally trod on you if you feel asleep in its field.
Aren't most Australians descended from the guards, not the prisoners?
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
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