Mystree: Flying Spiders

In October 1832, a young naturalist named Charles Darwin watched with delight as hundreds of tiny spiders dangling from short silk threads floated on to HMS Beagle as the ship made for Buenos Aires. Darwin reasoned that the spiders must have flown at least 60 miles before reaching the vessel. But how spiders became airborne in the first place remained a mystery. In a new study, scientists at Bristol University report the first tests of whether electrostatic forces are involved in what aficionados call spider “ballooning”.After a series of experiments performed with spiders in a Faraday cage, they concluded that the creatures can indeed fly on electric fields.Arachnids may use natural electric fields to help them stay airborne for up to hundreds of miles. When a spider wants to take flight it typically climbs to the top of a plant, tiptoes around, points its abdomen in the air and rapidly ejects up to a metre of silk. — Ian Sample,Guardian.com