Are spiders insects?
No, spiders are not insects. They are arachnids. Spiders have eight legs and two body parts, while insects have six legs and three body parts.
Both spiders and insects are arthropods, animals with exoskeletons and jointed legs, but they belong to different groups. Insects have three body segments: head, thorax and abdomen. Spiders have two: the cephalothorax and abdomen. Most insects have antennae and many have wings, while spiders have neither.
Insects usually have compound eyes made of many tiny lenses, while spiders have simple eyes, usually eight. Spiders can produce silk from organs called spinnerets at the end of their abdomen. Some insects make silk too, such as silkworms, but they make it differently.
Spider relatives
Arachnids include scorpions, ticks, mites and harvestmen, sometimes called daddy longlegs. Despite their name, many people confuse harvestmen with spiders, but they have a single, fused body and cannot make silk. There are more than 50,000 known species of spiders.
Did You Know?
Most spiders eat insects, and scientists estimate the world's spiders eat hundreds of millions of tonnes of prey each year.