Secret Breathing Diving Bell Spider

Diving bell spider (Argyroneta aquatica) or water spiders that live in ponds and slow-flowing river just need to take the air out of the water once a day. Conclusion scientist’s spider European researchers were published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

The researchers measured oxygen levels in and around the air bubble nets that cover the head of animals that live in water. They found that bubble function like gills, extracting oxygen from water and remove carbon dioxide.

The spider that lived in Europe and northern Asia is a web with fine hair from her belly. To find out how many times the spider took the air, an invertebrate specialist, Professor Roger Seymour and Dr Stefan Hetz, collected samples from the River spiders eider, Germany. They build artificial habitats of spiders in the laboratory.

It turned out that by measuring the difference in oxygen concentration in bubbles and water environment, researchers have gills for gas exchange as well as in animals that breathe in water.

"When the spiders breathe oxygen in the bubble, oxygen levels decrease and oxygen from water into the bubble," Seymour said as quoted by the BBC on Thursday (09/06/2011).