Diving bell spider
The diving bell spider is the only spider that lives almost its whole life under water. It builds a little underwater tent out of silk and fills it with air, like a tiny diving bell. When it swims, a bubble of air clings to its hairy body and makes it shine like silver.
How big is it?
How long is it?
How big is Diving bell spider compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It breathes air like other spiders, so now and then it swims up to the surface to fetch a fresh air bubble.
Unlike most spiders, the males are bigger than the females.
The mother lays 30 to 70 eggs inside her air bell and raises her babies there.
Its silk bell lets oxygen in from the water, so the spider does not need to refill it all the time.
In South Korea there is a special protected area just for this spider.
Most asked questions about Diving bell spider
?How does the diving bell spider breathe under water?
It carries a bubble of air on its hairy body and keeps more air in its silk diving bell.
?What does the diving bell spider eat?
Small water animals like mosquito larvae and water fleas.
?How big is the diving bell spider?
About 8 to 15 millimetres long. The males are the bigger ones.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Argyroneta aquatica
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Argyronetidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Argyronetidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
- Also known as
- Water spider
Where the facts come from
- Diving bell spider (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Norbert Schuller Baupi. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
European garden spider
Goliath birdeater
Brown recluse
Redback spider
Yellow garden spider
Bold jumping spider
Grannom
North American medicinal leech
Giant isopod
Eastern dobsonfly
Ringed paper wasp
Asian giant water bug