AWESOME SPIDERS
"If you want to live and thrive, let the spider run alive."
-- English proverb
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Besides providing this invaluable service, spiders rank very high among earth's most successful, diverse and
fascinating creatures. At present, there are 109 recognized families of spiders that include 3,733
genera and 40,700 described species. A few spider families contain only a single species,
but other families have thousands. The family of jumping spiders, Salticidae, is the
largest, with about 5,202 named species and others yet to be described.
Would human life be possible without spiders? Believe it or not, this is a valid question.
Spiders worldwide constantly kill and eat enormous quantities of insects, many of which might
otherwise be serious threats to our health and sanity. It has been estimated that the total mass
of insects eliminated annually by spiders far outweighs the entire human population.
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