• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

How Many Eyes Does A Spider Have?

May 27, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

Eyes come in just about every form in the animal world – from unusually shaped pupils, to bright colors, and even some animals that have evolved to do without. But what about the creatures that crawl across planet Earth? When you’re used to seeing the world from the safety of a web or from behind a trap door, does it matter how many eyes a spider has?

Advertisement

How many eyes does a spider have?

Typically, most spiders have eight eyes in four pairs. However some species have six eyes, like the brown recluse spiders, and some have only two or four, or only vestigial remains. 

Advertisement

Despite having many more eyes that humans, spiders don’t really see all that well. Instead they rely much more on touch and vibrations, and in some cases even smells. It’s important to remember that spiders number around 45,000 species and – most importantly – they are not insects but belong to the arachnids, a class of arthropods. Because of this variety, some spiders have evolved excellent vision, while some species have evolved to have no eyes at all.

How are spider eyes arranged?

Unlike insects, which have compound eyes, spiders have eyes similar to humans but with only a single lens (humans have two), according to Science News.

The largest central pair, or sometimes pairs, of eyes that are forward facing are called the primary eyes, known as anteromedial eyes or AME. Unlike something like an owl that can pivot its neck to see a wide field of view, spiders have eyes around their heads to give them a greater field of vision since they don’t have a neck to turn. 

Spider eyes are arranged on the sides of their heads to give protection from predators or to spot prey at different angles. These eyes are called secondary eyes and can be classified as anterolateral, posterolateral, or posteromedial eyes depending on their positioning on the side of the head. 

Advertisement

A 2017 paper compared diagrams of different eye arrangements, showing the variety within different spider families. 

Big brown spider with two black eyes above a row of four eyes. The bottom row of eyes has two slightly larger at each end.

Arrangements of spider eyes differ in size, shape, and number depending on the species. This huntsman spider uses vision to actively hunt its prey.

Image credit: Kurit afshen/Shutterstock.com

What does the research on spider eyes say?

Scientific research has been done on the eyesight of jumping spiders. They have the typical arrangement of eight eyes in four pairs. However, jumping spiders have one of those pairs slightly enlarged, with two large eyes at the front of their heads and then more eyes around the sides that help detect when something is moving closer to them. Experiments have revealed just how important to the spider these eyes are, and have even found that they can recognize spiders they’ve met before. 

Another experiment, this time with with net-casting spiders, revealed why they have such large eyes and even involved a spider blindfold. 

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Lithuania to fence first 110 km of Belarus border by April
  2. China’s ICBC to restrict some forex and commodities trading
  3. Potential New Treatment For Alcohol Use Disorder Identified By Scientists
  4. Why Is Earth’s Inner Core Solid When It’s Hotter Than The Sun’s Surface?

Source Link: How Many Eyes Does A Spider Have?

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Martian Mudstone Has Features That Might Be Biosignatures, New Brain Implant Can Decode Your Internal Monologue, And Much More This Week
  • Crocodiles Weren’t All Blood-Thirsty Killers, Some Evolved To Be Plant-Eating Vegetarians
  • Stratospheric Warming Event May Be Unfolding In The Southern Polar Vortex, Shaking Up Global Weather Systems
  • 15 Years Ago, Bees In Brooklyn Appeared Red After Snacking Where They Shouldn’t
  • Carnian Pluvial Event: It Rained For 2 Million Years — And It Changed Planet Earth Forever
  • There’s Volcanic Unrest At The Campi Flegrei Caldera – Here’s What We Know
  • The “Rumpelstiltskin Effect”: When Just Getting A Diagnosis Is Enough To Start The Healing
  • In 1962, A Boy Found A Radioactive Capsule And Brought It Inside His House — With Tragic Results
  • This Cute Creature Has One Of The Largest Genomes Of Any Mammal, With 114 Chromosomes
  • Little Air And Dramatic Evolutionary Changes Await Future Humans On Mars
  • “Black Hole Stars” Might Solve Unexplained JWST Discovery
  • Pretty In Purple: Why Do Some Otters Have Purple Teeth And Bones? It’s All Down To Their Spiky Diets
  • The World’s Largest Carnivoran Is A 3,600-Kilogram Giant That Weighs More Than Your Car
  • Devastating “Rogue Waves” Finally Have An Explanation
  • Meet The “Masked Seducer”, A Unique Bat With A Never-Before-Seen Courtship Display
  • Alaska’s Salmon River Is Turning Orange – And It’s A Stark Warning
  • Meet The Heaviest Jelly In The Seas, Weighing Over Twice As Much As A Grand Piano
  • For The First Time, We’ve Found Evidence Climate Change Is Attracting Invasive Species To Canadian Arctic
  • What Are Microfiber Cloths, And How Do They Clean So Well?
  • Stowaway Rat That Hopped On A Flight From Miami Was A “Wake-Up Call” For Global Health
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version