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Spiders may be terrifying and covered in hair, but they can’t exactly fly… can they? Well, that depends on how you define flight. According to reports from The New York Times, groundbreaking studies in aeronautics are unveiling the mysterious behavior of 'ballooning,' allowing spiders to cover vast distances—even crossing oceans—by soaring through the air like paragliders.
Moonsung Cho, an aeronautical engineer, began investigating ‘spider flight’ after seeing a spider carried by the wind in Denmark. Although scientists have long known that spiders sometimes use aerial movement to escape danger or find food and mates, the mechanics behind it were unclear until this recent study.
Cho and his team brought crab spiders into the lab and used a wind tunnel to observe their behavior in a controlled environment. They found that spiders use one of their legs as a wind meter, lifting it to gauge wind strength. (Their ideal flying conditions involve a gentle breeze of about 7 mph.)
Next, the spider raises its abdomen, releases threads of silk into the air, and allows itself to be whisked away into the horizon. These silk threads are far thinner than a human hair, yet they can stretch up to 6 feet in length. As Live Science explains, the silk curls when caught by the wind, essentially 'catching air like an open parachute.' This enables spiders to surf the air currents, traveling several miles.
Reports of ‘spider flight’ have been documented worldwide. In 2015, residents of an Australian town observed a ‘tunnel of webs’ in the sky. Spiders sometimes embark on mass migrations, and while they use the wind to travel, they have no control over where they end up. Some have even found themselves on islands in the middle of the ocean.
Watch this video from The New York Times to dive deeper into the phenomenon of ballooning.
