Antarctic sea spider

바다거미

A seabed animal with a tiny body and extremely long legs; it is not a true spider but a separate marine group. In cold Antarctic water some span tens of centimetres. Its body is so small that organs extend into the legs.

See it on the 3D globe →

At a glance

Class: Other animals
Lives in: Seabed of the Ross Sea
Diet: Meat eater (carnivore)
Habitat: polar regions, deep sea

Quick answers

Where does the Antarctic sea spider live?

It lives in polar regions, deep sea of the Southern Ocean. On the globe you can find it near Seabed of the Ross Sea.

What does the Antarctic sea spider eat?

Its diet: meat eater (carnivore).

Sea spiders are not true spiders, but a separate group of sea animals called pycnogonids. Colossendeis megalonyx is one of the large ones. It has a very small body and long, thin legs, with four pairs of walking legs attached to a short four-part trunk. It was first described after the HMS Challenger voyage of 1873 to 1876.

Its colour is usually orange, yellow or cream, and it has a long snout, called a proboscis, up to about twice as long as its trunk. Sea spiders live on the seabed, and this species is found in cold southern waters such as the Antarctic. It is a good example of how strange deep and polar sea life can be.

An active hunter

Many sea spiders eat animals on the seabed, but this one is unusually active. It hunts floating animals such as pteropods (small sea snails), jellyfish and comb jellies. It bends over and strikes with the tip of its proboscis, then stands back up with the prey still speared on it. It sucks out the soft body's fluid, and a meal can take several hours.

Breathing and babies

Sea spiders have no gills. This one takes in oxygen through its porous skin and its large surface compared with its body size. Divers saw them stacked in groups of two to four, like mating pairs of other sea spiders. In studies at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, a parent glued a cloud of eggs to the bottom after spawning. Special leg-like limbs called ovigers keep its legs clean.

Fun facts

Its body is so thin that parts of its gut reach into its legs, and it breathes through its skin.
It has no gills and breathes through its skin.
Its body is so slender that parts of the gut reach into the legs.
It was described after the famous HMS Challenger expedition.
It spears jellyfish with its snout.