I would imagine that the spider's all hairy so that he can pick up on little vibrations like flies wandering along and whatnot. But I'm not a biologist, so that could be entirely wrong. :)
A lot of insects and spiders have hairs. I can remember doing breeding experiments with fruit flies at Uni to increase or reduce the numbers of hairs on particular areas of the flies' surfaces which could be done in a very few generations but I doubt if anyone bothered to ask the question as to what those hairs were doing there in the first place.
I expect hairs on different creatures are called in to serve different purposes of insulation, sensation, making the creature less palatable, reducing friction, increasing friction, making their shape less obvious to predators and repelling water according to lifestyle.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-17 06:33 pm (UTC)Some shot.
What function is served by all those hairs on insects?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-17 07:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-17 07:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-18 04:48 pm (UTC)I expect hairs on different creatures are called in to serve different purposes of insulation, sensation, making the creature less palatable, reducing friction, increasing friction, making their shape less obvious to predators and repelling water according to lifestyle.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-18 10:13 pm (UTC)