Do bat-eating spiders exist? Aquatic and Land Arthropods Read more from Chapter Aquatic and Land Animal Diversity

Yes, bat-eating spiders live everywhere in the world except Antarctica. About 90 percent of these invertebrates live in the warmer regions of the globe and include some web-building spider species such as the Argiope savignyl and a tarantula species Poecilotheria rufilata; both are known to capture and kill small bats. Some tropical orb-weaving spiders—with a leg span of 4 to 6 inches (10–15 centimeters)—catch bats in webs that can reach 5 feet (16.5 meters) in diameter. Still other spiders have been seen capturing and killing a small bat, such as the huntsman spider (Heteropoda ventoria) in India. But they are not the only creatures the spiders eat—some larger species have also been known to capture and eat fish, frogs, and even snakes and mice.