Sea Spider by Eli Bourchier
Hiding beneath some small rocks and algae,
I’m a sea spider, well that’s what they call me.
Because to be frank, it isn’t quite true,
I can’t spin a web on the roof of your room.
You see, Pycnogonid is my real name,
but everyone tells me it’s too hard to say.
Everyone tells me I’m scary as well,
“an alien!” they shout, it isn’t so swell.
I know that my features might seem a bit wrong,
my body is tiny, my eight legs are so long.
But I have to say, I have feelings too,
you shouldn’t be scared, I’m harmless to you!
I do not have venom, I can not bite,
I use a proboscis to eat what I like.
I suck from my prey, like a bee with a flower.
I steal nutrients to give me enough power.
Jellyfish, coral, and sponges aren’t safe,
sometimes I eat algae to put green on my plate.
I stumble around and I’m not very quick
so the less my prey move the simpler it is!
But living where I do isn’t always so easy,
in the intertidal zone where the water may leave me.
Exposed in the sun is the last place to get caught,
for a sea spider like me, I do not like it hot.
My cousins say that Antarctica’s better,
it’s cold in the deep, and burn I would never.
But they couldn’t live on the shores of Aus,
some of those cousins are 2 feet across!
I can be tiny as a millimetre,
so hiding is always my safest procedure.
I fit in small gaps, you may never see me.
I make sure my colour blends in with the scenery.
The sun doesn’t come and I avoid getting munched
by sea stars and crabs who want me for their lunch
Many don’t know me, some are just scared,
by my weird body, with barely a head.
Most will not spot me, but that’s how I find
is the best way to make it out here in the tides.
If you would like to learn more about the huge diversity of life that can be found along our coasts and shorelines, please contact our Education Director at education@dolphinresearch.org.au for a public event, school holiday program or school incursion/excursion.
