Snopes Runs Spam
so, it appears, that the debunking site snopes also runs spam services, so that they have business.
here's a research from 2016
Basically, snope's citation is never found.
(that is, “Lisa Birgit Holst” of “PC Professional, 7 Jan 1993” doesn't exist)
Snopes of course changes the article on their site http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/spiders.asp over the years.
As of 2017-03-19, it points out the thing is a hoax and they link to Scientific American article.
Is Snope Scamming?
Let's not forget, the real question here, is, is the person who ran snopes intentionally created fake stuff so that they can earn more money via ads on their website?
I'm inclined to believe so.
Instead of research on the 8 spiders issue, you can research on snope and the person who ran them. And find out if the guy actually run spam servers that send spam emails.