In the academic journal The Science Of Nature (never heard of it before, so I’m wondering how much to trust the material), Martin Nyffeler and Klaus Birkhofer give some remarkable estimates concerning spiders … en masse:
Source: Spiderzrule.com
Based on estimates of the average spider biomass m−2 in various terrestrial biomes, extrapolation suggests that the total standing biomass of the global spider community equals 25.09 × 1012 g (= 25 million metric tons fresh weight; Table 1). Biomass estimates m−2 follow the order forests > grasslands/shrublands > croplands, deserts, and tundra, which also reflects the order of total spider biomass per biome type worldwide.
The calculation of the annual prey kill by the global spider community with method I resulted in an estimate of 721 × 1012 g year−1 (= roughly 700 million tons year−1; Table 2). To derive an estimate to which degree reduced feeding activity during rainy days would affect the global annual prey kill, we recalculated this estimate assuming that it rained during one third of the feeding season with no prey being captured on rainy days. This simple scenario still leads to a global annual prey kill of 460 million tons year−1. Estimates derived from method I therefore suggest that the annual prey kill of the global spider community may be in the range of 460–700 million tons year−1. Our assessment with method II produced an estimate of the global annual prey kill of 395–805 × 1012 g year−1 (= roughly 400–800 million tons year−1; Table 3). The estimates computed with the two methods are highly comparable in magnitude (Tables 2and 3). Together, the two different methods suggest that the global annual prey kill is presumably in the range of 400–800 million tons year−1.
To which I can only say AAUUUGH! And, BTW:
For comparison, the human world population does consume an estimated 400 million tons of meat and fish annually (Bruinsma 2003; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2014).
Some spiders do consume fish, if I remember my National Geographic reading from decades ago.
I wonder how much vegetable matter we consume.
