Post by cole on Feb 6, 2024 19:20:12 GMT
By Kevin Nielsen - Global News - globalnews.ca/
A recent study by European scientists concludes that spiders eat between 440 million and 880 million tons of prey per year. (Or the total weight of every human on the planet.)
Luckily, spiders eat insects for the most part, although the larger ones do also snack on larger creatures.
The study, which was written by professors Martin Nyffeler and Klaus Birkhofer, noted there are 45,000 individual species of spider that have been identified thus far, with a combined weight of around 25 million metric tons.
The study suggests that there are an average of 131 spiders per square meter around the globe, while in ideal conditions, the density can reach up to 1000 spiders per square meter.
Nyffeler and Birkhofer used a pair of methods in their attempt to figure out how much spiders consume.
First, they used existing data to estimate that spiders eat around 10 per cent of their body weight on a daily basis.
In a Washington Post article by Christopher Ingraham, the author noted "spiders could eat all of us and still be hungry".
He noted a 2005 study saying the entire global adult human biomass is approximately 287 million tonnes.
A recent study by European scientists concludes that spiders eat between 440 million and 880 million tons of prey per year. (Or the total weight of every human on the planet.)
Luckily, spiders eat insects for the most part, although the larger ones do also snack on larger creatures.
The study, which was written by professors Martin Nyffeler and Klaus Birkhofer, noted there are 45,000 individual species of spider that have been identified thus far, with a combined weight of around 25 million metric tons.
The study suggests that there are an average of 131 spiders per square meter around the globe, while in ideal conditions, the density can reach up to 1000 spiders per square meter.
Nyffeler and Birkhofer used a pair of methods in their attempt to figure out how much spiders consume.
First, they used existing data to estimate that spiders eat around 10 per cent of their body weight on a daily basis.
In a Washington Post article by Christopher Ingraham, the author noted "spiders could eat all of us and still be hungry".
He noted a 2005 study saying the entire global adult human biomass is approximately 287 million tonnes.
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