• Question: if you cut off a spiders leg does it grow back?

    Asked by samtowney to Betul, Bridget, Ceri-Wyn, Maria on 23 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Bridget Waller

      Bridget Waller answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      I don’t think so! There might be some species that can regenerate, but I think in the most part, once a leg has gone its gone…

    • Photo: Betul Arslan

      Betul Arslan answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      Yes, it does. As long as it is not a big wound, spiders can grow a leg in short time. Many developmental biologists are trying to understand why humans can’t and if humans can, in the future. As you can imagine, militaries financially supports these kind of studies 🙂 (guess why)

    • Photo: Ceri-Wyn Thomas

      Ceri-Wyn Thomas answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      Spiders, like all arthropods, grow through a process known as ecdysis- they shed their old exoskeleton and grow a new one to accommodate their growing bodies. The times when spiders shed their old exoskeleton are called instars (like a spider’s birthday). A spider can have more than 20 instars in its life before reaching full maturity when it keeps its final exoskeleton until death. If a spider lost a leg while it was still going through its instar development then the new exoskeleton would grow a perfectly new leg. If a mature spider lost its leg and no new exoskeleton grew then it wouldn’t be able to regenerate the lost leg.

      So leg re-growth only applies to younger spiders. Interestingly other arachnids, like scorpions for example, can regrow bits of broken limbs but not as completely and perfectly as spiders. On the other hand Opiliones (harvestmen and daddy-long-legs) practice something called autotomy- where they choose to loose legs! They can’t grow them back though! The Arachnid family is truly fascinating and one of my favourite animal groups.

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