WEBVTT

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What makes this a spider?. Start with the body plan: two main body regions and eight walking legs. A photograph may hide some features.

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Find the narrow connection. The prosoma, or cephalothorax, joins the abdomen through a narrow pedicel. These are the two main body regions.

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Locate the walking legs. Four pairs of walking legs attach to the prosoma. The eyes and mouthparts are also on this front region.

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Separate palps from legs. The shorter pedipalps sit near the mouth. They help with sensing and food handling; adult males also use them in mating.

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Find the silk outlets. The abdomen contains silk glands. Silk leaves through tiny outlets on spinnerets, illustrated here by a wasp spider.

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Observe before you infer. Locate both body regions in a photograph. Count visible legs, and mark hidden ones as unknown rather than inventing their position.