Ballooning Spiders Can Fly

Flight is one of the most fundamental yet admired superpowers. It's no wonder that flying superheroes are so common these days because mankind has always envied birds of the sky and their alleged freedom. The fact that a life form that shouldn't be able to fly has mastered flight is amazing. Consider spiders as an example.

Some spider species exhibit a phenomenon known as ballooning. They bend their bums upward and shoot web strands into the abyss. The spider is lifted by the webbing and carried away. By doing this, they can even cross oceans. Even while it alone is noteworthy, it merits further examination.

After reading this, you might believe that the wind is responsible for the spiders' ascent. Previously, scientists also held that belief. But spiders can't really rely on a breeze's erratic behavior, can they? The wind is not at all necessary for ballooning, though it is certainly a possibility. The Earth's electric field, however, enables the silk strands they produce to hoist them aloft even on a calm day.

It turns out that spiders have extremely precise electrical field sensitivity. Their body hairs can actually sense changes in electrical fields, and under the correct circumstances, they can release silk strands that will be attracted to a charged thread and carried upward and away.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae