Top 5 Of The World's Deadliest Hunting Spiders | Incredible Spiders | Earth Touch

Spiders are not only efficient predators, they're also among nature's most talented architects. Whether it's burrows, webs or nets, constructing high-tech hunting devices is the name of the game. And few can rival the phenomenal web building abilities of the golden orb. A common resident in tropical areas across the globe, the golden orb weaving spider has spent over 160 million years perfecting its architectural skills. Its long legs with inward pointing tips are responsible for weaving gigantic silk traps that gram for gram are stronger than steel. They're so strong that even small birds and bats have been caught in them. The glittering golden silk is what attracts prey. It's one of the natural world's most impressive structures and its maker is not equipped with just one silk producing gland, but seven. Each gland produces its own unique silk. They make tough silk to protect eggs, a soft silk to wrap up their prey and they can even produce a cabling silk for structural support. However, what's truly fascinating is how this silk is produced. It's stored as a liquid in each gland. As the spider contracts its muscles, it forces the liquid silk out through hundreds of tiny tubes. The muscular force turns the liquid into a solid silk strand. These individual strands twist and plait together to produce one super strong cord. The female builds the entire web on her own, while a potential mate hangs around to take advantage of any leftovers caught in her trap. But he's 10 times smaller than her, he must tread very carefully. The tips of her legs are connected to the strands that radiate in eight different directions. Through vibration, she has a 360 degree radar over her entire web. The grasshopper's paralyzed with venom and wrapped alive in soft preserving silk. She hangs each parcel at the center of the web with strong cementing silk. This meal will stay fresh for hours in its tomb-like casing. At one, the spider wraps her prey alive in their gore fins, hangs on for the ride. The golden orb's complex web delivers every time. Afternoon of feasting awaits. Spiders have colonized a diverse array of ecosystems around the planet, with only the sky and sea still out of their reach. But one incredible spider has ignored all the rules. It spends its entire life submerged. The diving bell spider is the only arachnid known to live exclusively underwater. It has no fins or gills, it doesn't need them. It builds its very own submarine air supply. This bubble is its lifeline, its homemade scuba tank. To construct the bubble, this male swims to the surface and pops its abdomen into the air. Like the fishing spider, the air bubble around his abdomen allows him to breathe through his book lungs. The spider shuttles several bubbles from the surface to create a large reservoir of air. It's an ingenious way to access a whole new hunting ground, which it now has all to itself. This is the spider's sanctuary, where it'll feed and rest. This collection of incredible spiders is full of surprising characters. The diving bell spider lives underwater, but a bigger predator hunts from a secret lair beneath the African earth. This enormous arachnid has a leg span of over 10 centimeters and lives in an underground burrow for most of its life. It's shy and secretive by nature, but the baboon spider has a dark side. It gets its name from its enormous size, its hairy body and the baboon-like pads at the end of each leg. And its many eyes operate like a built-in periscope surveying the surrounds of its burrow. What prey doesn't know is that its secretive hideout is wired for surveillance. When it's not hungry, the spider spins a seal at the entrance to its lair. This prevents falling prey from disturbing her beauty sleep. But when it's time to eat, the burrow becomes a high-tech booby trap. The entrance is lined with strands of silk that travel to the burrow like tripwires. When a moving insect triggers the wires, vibrations are sent down the burrow, alerting the spider to a possible meal. She can distinguish between the vibrations of a pesky ant and a meaty cricket. A wire's been triggered. It's time to feed. The baboon spider is a calculating predator. Another tripwire has been triggered, and the opportunistic hunter returns to the surface. Many legs give off many vibrations. From straight out of the ground, the centipede meets a greater predator. Over 30 centimetres below the surface, the baboon returns to its solitary confinement to feast on its prey, alive. There are over 35,000 spider species on Earth, and they come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They're big and hairy, small and colourful, and some are completely camouflaged. But none look quite as strange as the whip spider. This arachnid would look more at home in outer space than on planet Earth. A flat body allows it to crawl into dark nooks and crannies. And its pincers can grow to twice the length of its body and are tipped with wolverine-like claws. The whip spider doesn't have venom, so when it finds its prey, it grabs it with its pincers and simply impales it. At night, the whip spider shows its true colours. This arachnid operates in dim light, so long sensory whips probe the air, picking up vibrations from moving prey. This female doesn't just have to feed herself. She's got 16 newly hatched young that are hanging on for the bride. The mini whip spiders will live on her back until they develop their very own exoskeletons and pincers to feed themselves. After their first molt, the green sprouts turn into fully formed arachnids, equipped to take on the dark corners of the insect world. Some environments are incredibly harsh on spiders. One species is a desert specialist, able to make a living in the oldest desert on Earth. The golden wheel spider looks a lot like many others, but it's this one that has a unique acrobatic talent. In the ancient Namibian desert, it must deal with total exposure. A burrow beneath the boiling sand is its best chance of survival. The silk-lined bunker will extend over 30 centimetres down and protect the spider from the harsh desert sun. But it's not just the heat this spider's escaping from. This pompilid wasp is on the hunt for a golden wheel spider. It doesn't want to prey on it. It wants to lay a single egg inside it. This way, when its larva hatches, it will have a fresh dinner to feast on. The spider puts the finishing touches on its hideout, just in time. The wasp senses movement. The wasp only needs to sting him once. The spider makes his getaway and reveals his trump card. By folding its legs into spokes, the spider turns into a wheel and rolls down the dune at 20 turns a second, leaving the wasp in the dust. This clever adaptation has given the golden wheel spider a helping hand in its desert environment. But it's not going to test its luck out in the open.