Serious question about spiders!!!!?

Question

On Hollyoaks tonight, someone said that spiders have no heart or lungs. My mate found this very interesting but i personally cannot see it being true. Anyone know for sure??

Answer 1

Not entirely true. Although they don't have a circulatory or respiratory system exactly like ours, they do still have organs that could be called a heart and lungs.

The heart is simply an open, muscular tube with one-way valves at each end, that pumps slowly and continuously, circulating the fluid the fills the spider's body (they don't have veins, arteries or other vessels, just an open circulatory system).

Depending on the species, some spiders have lungs, and some don't. There are two types of respiratory systems in spiders: trachea and book lungs. Most spiders have both, but some have only one or the other.

Trachea are simple tubes that connect internal tissue to the outside air, and oxygen moves in through simple diffusion. Insects use a very similar system (and it is one of the things that limits how large insects can grow).

The book lungs are thin, bellowed structures, much like the pages of a book that open and close. They also exchange oxygen via diffusion, but they have a lot more surface area to work with. The book lungs have no muscular system attachments to open and close the books, all of the motion is provided by the movement of the spider itself.

Answer 2

This article says they have a heart but not lungs like ours.


"Spider Facts

An interesting question: Do Spiders breathe?
Spiders obtain their oxygen through four respiratory organs located on the underside of their abdomens. These organs are arranged into two pairs, an anterior pair at the very front end of the abdomen, and a posterior pair behind the anterior pair. Each of these can take one of two forms, book lungs or tracheae. In some spiders both pairs are book lungs, in a few both are tracheae, but in most cases the anterior pair are book lungs and the posterior pair are tracheae.

Book lungs consist of stacks of between 10 and 80 flattened hollow discs. These are bathed in haemolymph (the spider's equivalent of blood), and the shape of the book lung maximises the surface area at which gaseous exchange can occur. Air enters a hole in the spider's abdomen called a spiracle and diffuses into the book lungs. Since the spider's heart is continually pumping deoxygenated haemolymph through the book lungs, the concentration of oxygen in the air in the book lungs is
always higher than in the haemolymph, and therefore oxygen will move from the air into the haemolymph down an oxygen gradient. The oxygenated haemolymph is then pumped to the organs where it delivers its oxygen.

Tracheae consist of a system of branching tubes, which extend from the spiracles to deliver oxygen directly to the organs. It is generally assumed that there has beena gradual evolutionary change from book lungs to tracheae, possibly in response to the need to conserve water, since a great deal can be lost across the large surface area of the book lung. Although doubts have been raised about whether tracheae could evolve directly from book lungs, the book lungs of some spiders have a small
number of greatly elongated chambers, and these have been interpreted as an evolutionary intermediate in the evolution of tracheae from book lungs. "

Answer 3

You are right. They don't have the same circulatory system that mammals have. We have a closed circulatory system (viens and arteries bring blood to parts of body), while spiders have open circulatory system (all their cavaties/oragns are immersed in "blood" and thus no need for arteries). So maybe that is were your mate go the idea. You are right, although the different systems, spiders still need the heart and lung. Although these heart and lung are different then our heart and lung, their main duties are the same. Lung brings in oxygen, heart pumps it. No veins or arteries though, like I mentioned above.

Answer 4

They certainly don't have lungs. Most land-living invertebrates (that includes spiders AND insects) breathe through a series of small holes called Spiracles. It's a good job that they don't have lungs, as the spiracles are the reason they haven't been able to evolve to a larger size!

Answer 5

I asked a spider once but could not understand the reply. Have not visited the web since.

Answer 6

Maybe you need to spend more research time on the web?

Answer 7

Of course they don't. They are arachnids.

Answer 8

i don´t know