Spider Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. Morning dew makes a previously hard-to-see web highly visible. What is the best explanation?
The spider replaced its silk overnight with a white mineral thread
The silk expanded into hollow tubes after absorbing water
The web began producing light as the air cooled
Water droplets collected on the silk and reflected light
2. An orb web begins vibrating while its spider waits away from the captured insect. How can the spider most directly detect the disturbance?
By detecting vibrations transmitted through the silk to its legs
By watching the insect with color-sensitive central eyes
By sensing a change in the web's temperature
By tasting chemicals released into the air
3. Which ecological role is performed by many spider species?
Producing nectar for other arthropods
Pollinating nearly all flowering plants
Breaking down rock into mineral soil
Preying on insects and other small animals
4. A harvestman is sometimes called a “daddy longlegs,” but it is not a true spider. Which feature helps distinguish many harvestmen from spiders?
Harvestmen have six walking legs instead of eight
Their main body regions appear broadly fused into one unit
They have wings folded beneath a hardened shell
Their bodies are divided into a head, thorax, and abdomen
5. How do spiders usually consume solid-bodied prey?
They grind the entire prey animal with chewing jaws
They release digestive fluids and draw in the liquefied tissues
They swallow the prey whole and digest it in the stomach
They scrape off pieces with a toothed tongue
6. A predator grabs a spider by one leg, but the spider escapes after the leg separates at a joint. What defensive response has occurred?
Ballooning
Stridulation
Autotomy
Camouflage
7. A spider actively stalks prey in daylight and makes precise leaps between leaves. Which group is especially known for this behavior and relatively acute vision?
Trapdoor spiders
Orb-weaver spiders
Jumping spiders
Cellar spiders
8. A house spider retreats when approached but may bite if trapped against skin. Which statement best reflects this behavior?
Spiders routinely seek people because human blood is their main food
Any retreating spider will later return to attack
Most spiders avoid people, with biting generally serving as a defensive response
A spider can bite only while sitting in a finished web
9. You find a small arthropod with six legs, a pair of antennae, and three main body sections. What does this evidence indicate?
It is a young spider that has not grown its final pair of legs
It is a harvestman because harvestmen have antennae
It is a spider adapted to living among insects
It is an insect rather than a spider
10. Which combination correctly describes a typical adult spider?
Ten legs and two main body regions
Six legs and three main body regions
Eight legs and three main body regions
Eight legs and two main body regions
11. Why is a spider especially vulnerable shortly after molting?
Its new exoskeleton is initially soft and needs time to harden
Its venom glands temporarily stop functioning for several weeks
It loses the ability to sense vibrations until its next meal
Its legs become shorter until the old shell is consumed
12. In mature male spiders, which appendages commonly transfer sperm during mating?
Spinnerets
Walking-leg claws
Pedipalps
Cheliceral fangs
13. A young spider climbs to an exposed point, releases fine silk, and becomes airborne. What behavior is being observed?
Ballooning
Burrowing
Web recycling
Molting
14. A circular web has spokes radiating from a central hub and a sticky spiral used to intercept flying insects. What type of web is it?
Funnel web
Orb web
Sheet web
Cobweb tangle
15. Which respiratory structures are found in many spiders?
External gills beneath the abdomen
Book lungs and, in some species, tracheae
Lungs connected to a muscular diaphragm
Spiracles leading only to air sacs in the legs
16. Which structures near the rear of a spider's abdomen produce and guide silk?
Spinnerets
Pedipalps
Chelicerae
Book lungs