Nature & Environment

Cities are causing spiders to grow bigger

By T.K. Randall
August 21, 2014 ·  19 comments

Cities are proving to be a good place for spiders to live. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 2.0 Konrad Summers Researchers collected more than two hundred golden orb weaver spiders from parks and bushland around Sydney in Australia and found that, when compared to their counterparts living in the wilds, the specimens appeared to be decidedly bigger.

As it turns out, city-dwelling arachnids grow to larger sizes, are better fed and have more babies than those living in the countryside.The researchers believe that a number of factors may be contributing to this such as the tendency for street lights to attract insects that the spiders then catch and eat.

The paved surfaces and lack of vegetation also tend to make cities warmer, prompting spider growth.

Despite posing a problem for arachnophobes however a booming spider population is actually considered to a good thing in cities as not only do the arachnids help control pest species within urban areas but they are also a prime food source for the local birds as well.

Source: Wired | Comments (19)

Tags: Spider, Cities