Question: Why do spiders have eight legs ???

Lydia Bach answered on 20 Nov 2014:

Hello!

Spiders are odd insects because they have eight instead of six legs. This has also baffled researchers, who have been looking into the reasons for this.

Scientists have shown that spiders with six legs are as good at building nets as spiders with eight legs. Some researchers think that spiders lose legs really quite often. So in normal spider populations as much as 60% of spiders have lost one or two legs. – So having eight legs allows spiders to lose a few legs throughout their life, without it impacting their net building skills. (Five legged spiders have a problem building nets)

Based on that scientists think that spiders have evolved the additional legs as an advantage when it comes to net building, survival and escaping a predator – losing one or two legs isn’t really a problem for them.