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Many people know that spiders prey on insects such as crickets and butterflies. A recent study, however, shows that some spider species feed on fish up to twice their size.

Researchers in Australia and Switzerland studied spider species that live near water, such as ponds, lakes, and wetlands. According to them, the fish-eating spiders are more common than scientists thought. They live on every continent except for Antarctica.

The semi-aquatic spiders can swim or walk on the surface of water. They can catch and eat fish which are 2 to 6 cm in length. The prey are usually 2.2 times bigger and 4.5 times heavier than the spiders.

Thanks to their powerful digestive enzymes, fish-eating spiders have little trouble digesting large prey. Catching prey is the difficult part, however. The spiders do not spin a web for hunting. They ambush the unsuspecting prey. They bite and kill the prey with poisons that include neurotoxins. Then, they drag it to dry land and eat it. Eating it sometimes takes several hours.

“Our evidence suggests that fish might be an occasional prey item of substantial nutritional importance,” said one of the researchers.