Science unravels spiders' monstrous food consumption

PARIS - The world's spiders eat 400-800 million metric tons of insects every year - equivalent to the amount of meat and fish that humans consume over the same period, a study said on Tuesday.

In the first analysis of its kind, researchers used data from 65 previous studies to estimate that a total of 25 million tons of spiders exist on Earth.

Taking into account how much food spiders need to survive, the team then calculated the eight-legged creatures' annual haul of insects and other invertebrates.