Some fascinating facts about spiders

Horizontal orbweb spider. Image - Dru Burger

Little Miss Muffet of the nursery rhyme really existed. She was the daughter of Dr Mouffet who believed spiders had healing powers when eaten.
The weight of insects eaten by spiders every year is greater than the total weight of the entire human population.
There can be up to nearly 5 million spiders per hectare.
The combined length of thread in a spider's web is about 20-60 m and it can take the spider up to 3 hours to make an orbweb.
On an equal weight basis, spider silk is twice as strong as steel. In addition, spider silk is very elastic. It is this combination of strength and stretch that makes the energy-to-break of spider silk so high. Simply put, it is the toughest material known.
Spiders have 48 "knees": 8 legs with 6 joints on each.
A jumping spider can jump up to 25 times its own body length.