Spiders belong to a group of animals called the arachnids. There are about 32,000 known species of spider. They vary in size, shape and habits, but they all have the same basic body structure.
Every spider has two body parts. The front part is called the cephalothorax, is made up of the head and chest joined together. All spider have eight jointed legs attached to the cephalothorax. The second part of the body is the abdomen, or opistosoma. This contains the digestive and reproductive organs, plus the spinnerets which the spider uses to produce its silk.
Most spiders have eight eyes and poison glands, fangs in their jaws, which they use to inject poison into insects. The venom paralyzes or kills their prey.