The Aqua-Lung Spider
You may need:
- A picture of a spider, a stuffed spider or a real one
- Video of the Aqua Lung Spider
How many of you like spiders? (Show picture of one) Well, not very many. But, this morning, I’d like to tell you about an aqua-lung spider and how it differs from many other kinds.
These spiders make their homes under water. Oh, you might wonder, how does this spider breathe? Well, it breathes air like other spiders, but there is a difference. The aqua-lung spider spins a web tent under the water, then goes above the water, and grabs an air bubble. They carry the bubble down and place it under the web tent with other bubbles. This forms an air pocket and as they add more bubbles, it becomes big enough for them to live there for awhile.
When they decide to raise a family, the male and female spiders build bubble tents side by side and the female builds a third bubble room on top of the others for the eggs she will lay.
When the baby spiders, called “spiderlings,” come to life, they are given a tiny bubble of air. If it didn’t have the bubble, it would not live. However, they soon swim to the surface for their own supply of air.
What do aqua-lung spiders eat? Mostly on small fish. The big spiders spin threads around where they live and any time a fish brushes against one of these threads, the movement tells the parents that a “meal is ready.”
Aqua-lung spiders must carry an air bubble with them. Because the spider breathes through tiny pores (explain “pore”) in his abdomen, the bubble must surround that part of the spider’s body completely. This gives the spiders “oxygen masks.”
God created all kinds of spiders—and whether we like spiders or not, they have been given a method of living quite different from our own. Isn’t our God amazing?
Information for this story originally came from “Windows on God’s World” by James A Tucker, 1975, p. 86. In addition, the story is featured on kidsbibleinfo.com