“Yes, spiders drink water to survive”
Just like other animals and insects, spiders do require and drink water. But they don’t drink water as frequently as humans do. Most of them satisfy their water requirement through the fluid sucked out of the prey. There are spiders such as black widow spiders and redback spiders who don’t require drink water at all because the fluid sucked from their prey is enough for them to meet their water requirement.
What are the sources of water for spiders?
Most of the wild spiders drink water from the droplets present on vegetation due to morning and evening dew. They also drink water condensed on their webs. Some of the spiders such as whistling spiders cover their burrow with thin layers of silk such that water gets captured in it. For most of the spiders, the prey’s fluid acts as a source of water. Some species of spiders absorb nectar (sweet sugary fluid) present in the flowers to meet their water requirement. In nature, you must have seen insects including spiders approaching a single drop of water and sucking water of it.
If you have any pet spiders such as tarantula spiders, it is a good idea to keep a small source of water for them to drink.
Do You Know?
It is believed that spiders evolved about 400 million years ago from thick-waisted arachnid ancestors.
How do spiders drink water?
Spiders are known to feed by regurgitating digestive fluid (a protein-rich fluid from maxillary glands) onto their prey and then sucking up the resulting nutrient-loaded broth. Spiders have a muscular sucking stomach which enabled them to suck up liquid from the prey. In most cases, this ingested food in liquid form meets the spider’s water need.
They can suck water from a film of water flowing along the walls by pressing their mouth very close to wall.
How long spiders can survive without water?
Depending on the species, spider’s chances of survival varies significantly. Most of the spiders can live without food and water for a long period of time. Some of the species can survive without food for weeks, months, and even a few years. Brown recluse spiders have the ability to survive up to 10 months without food and water.
Some of the tarantula species such as Chilean rose tarantula can live up to 2 years without food.
Do You Know?
Theraphosids (tarantulas and baboon spiders) are the longest lived spiders having a lifespan of more than 20 years in captivity.
In general, spiders have to wait for a long time for their prey to fall in their web trap but they have evolved their system such that they can live without food and water for a long time and that too without suffering.
So we can conclude that water is essential for spiders to survive and they meet their water need by either drinking water or from the ingested fluid from the prey’s body.
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