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Here's some interesting facts of spiders you might not know

Missouri is home to more than 300 species of spiders. Some individuals are the size of a pinhead and are easily overlooked. Others are surprisingly large, with a leg-span of 4 or more inches.

Spiders live in virtually every type of habitat in Missouri-and in staggering numbers. It has been estimated up to 2 1/2 million individual spiders in a single grassland acre.

With a few exceptions, Missouri spiders rarely live longer than a year. Some hibernate in winter under tree bark or rocks, or in cellars and attics, but many die within one warm season, leaving the future to an over-wintering brood of encased eggs. Spiderlings emerge in spring and summer from egg sacs suspended from vegetation or from flattened silk sacs constructed on leaves or in flower heads. Some spiders leave egg sacs in burrows under rocks, while others, such as wolf spider, carry the nursery with them.

A spider is not an insect. It has eight legs, no visible antennae and a two-piece body. Spiders, along with tics, mites, harvestmen and scorpions, belong to the class arachnida. A spider has silk-spinning structures, called spinnerets, at the back end of its abdomen, and usually eight eyes of various sizes and shapes grace its face.

A spider's mouth parts, too, are different from an insect's. Instead of mandibles capable of chewing, spiders have fang-tipped jaws called chelicerae. With these, they pierce their prey and inject a toxic fluid that immobilizes it; digestive juices dissolve its internal tissues. The spider's small, tube like mouth, aided by strong abdominal muscles, pumps and sucks the victim until it is a shriveled husk. A strong-jawed spider, like the yellow garden spider or the tarantula, often mashes its prey between its chelicerae while ejecting digestive juices over it.

Webbing is considered, pound for pound, to be the strongest organic substance on Earth. A scientist spent years collecting spider web extract and actually made a spider suit. It repelled a steel baseball bat, bullets shot at close range, and even withstood getting hit by a pickup truck. Though many scientists have tried none have been able to match or copy spider silk.

The feared tarantula isn’t poisonous. A tarantula’s bite can be painful, but it isn’t any more dangerous than a bee sting.

The weight of insects eaten by spiders every year is greater than the total weight of the entire human population.

Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet, eating her curds and whey… Miss Muffet was a real person! Her father, Dr. Mouffet believed that spiders could heal when eaten. Eek! If he was my dad, I’d be frightened of spiders, too!

The largest spider in the world is the Giant Bird-eating spider. One that was found had a leg span of 28 cm (11 inches)!

The smallest spider is the Patu Marplesi. You could fit 10 of them on the end of a pencil.