Fish-Eating
Spiders Found on
Every Continent But
Antarctica, Study Says
**t all
Spiders catch their prey by spinning webs; a surprising number of arachnids quite literally fish for their meals, snatching scaly animals sometimes twice their size.
In fact, a new scientific review
Found that
Fish-Eating spiders*lurk near rivers, ponds and swamps on
Every Continent except Antarctica. They've lifted small catfish out of marshes in Ecuador; grabbed killifish out of nets in Cameroon; devoured dwarf fish in California aquariums; and stalked hatchery ponds in Oklahoma, continuing to kill fish even after eating their fill.
Arach**logist Martin Nyffeler, of the University of Basel in Switzerland, and fish ecologist Brad Pusey, of the University*of*Western Australia, pored over scientific papers, citizen reports and photos from around the world and collected 89 such instances of
Spiders eating fish. Their review was published June 18 in the journal*
PLOS ONE.
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Nature,
Fish,
Antarctica,
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