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Water Spider

Arachnids

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The water spider, Argyroneta aquatica, is a species of spider native to freshwater ponds, lakes and slow streams across northern and central Europe and Asia, unique among spiders as the only species that spends nearly its entire life fully submerged underwater. It constructs a distinctive underwater retreat, a bell-shaped web anchored to aquatic plants and filled with air the spider carries down from the surface trapped in hairs on its body and abdomen, creating a diving-bell chamber where it eats, rests, mates and lays eggs.

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