How can spiders go so long without food (weeks) when their body is so small? Where do they store all their energy?
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wait til you find out how long fleas can survive without feeding
It’s a combination of their small size (movements require less energy with smaller mass), an ability to slow their metabolism when needed (e.g. when it gets colder), and having fat stores they can convert into energy.
It has less to do with body size and more with an extremely efficient metabolism.
A big reason for that efficiency is that they are cold-blooded. Cold-blooded animals, in general, can go a pretty long time without eating — think about snakes, for example.
It takes _a lot_ of energy for your body to generate heat, so animals that don’t generate their own heat get a lot more “bang for their buck” out of food.
In fact, many cold-blooded animals will intentionally keep their body temperature extremely low in periods where they don’t have much to eat. On the flip side, they’ll bask in the sun to help digest a big meal.
Spiders in particular are quite good at managing their own metabolisms. If they don’t have much to eat, they don’t expend much energy.
And many cold-blooded animals, including spiders, have their own form of hibernation. In spiders it’s called a diapause phase. This allows them to wait out the cold months by expending practically no energy at all!
Does it help that spiders don’t have lots of muscle? They move basically using hydrolics right? So they don’t need to expend energy maintaining muscle fibers to be able to move etc?
Spiders can store the energy from the food they eat in their bodies. They are good at conserving and using that energy slowly, which helps them go without food for weeks. It’s like having a reserve tank of energy that they use when they need it.
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