by Solar » Mon Jan 04, 2021 3:21 am
Thank you for posting this. Here is video summary:
How Spiders Use Electricity to Fly
For years upon years I've wondered the following: Occasionally, its possible to catch the glint of sunlight reflecting from a very long section along the length of a spiders web. You find that it appears to lead from the side of the house to some tree branch quite some distance away - say 15-20 ft distant, and it left me wondering. I've seen it at my house many times and there is also that moment when walking that one line of a spider's web goes across your face, but you're along an established path between foliage and or buildings - and it left me wondering. Also noticeable is that due to its length the web-line "sags" under its own weight as it gently blows in the wind.
At one time I thought: Well, they fell from trees, attached just before falling, and just happed to land on a structure (leaf, branch, side of building) on the way down and also attached to that. However, this was problematic because, if you've ever noticed, the angles between the attached ends of a single web-line can be far to shallow (say 20-30 degree slope for example) to be the result of accidentally falling. I seriously had to convince myself that no, the spider did not attach to a branch, drop to the ground, then walk across my grass without getting that web-line stuck on something - to then crawl up the side of my house to build ... a shortcut?
I just chatted this up in the company of a few long time friends and out of five people only one of them also had this same years long quandary. You'll be happy to know that they were also elated to finally have an answer to the question of these long single suspended spider web-lines. See this next image, then imagine having only one of those silk treads glinting in the sun, or you being the lucky person that unknowingly walked along a path where only one of them went across your face:
Spiderlings ballooning
Finally, an answer. Yes I'm easily excited.
Thank you for posting this. Here is video summary:
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja4oMFOoK50]How Spiders Use Electricity to Fly[/url]
For years upon years I've wondered the following: Occasionally, its possible to catch the glint of sunlight reflecting from a very long section along the length of a spiders web. You find that it appears to lead from the side of the house to some tree branch quite some distance away - say 15-20 ft distant, and it left me wondering. I've seen it at my house many times and there is also that moment when walking that one line of a spider's web goes across your face, but you're along an established path between foliage and or buildings - and it left me wondering. Also noticeable is that due to its length the web-line "sags" under its own weight as it gently blows in the wind.
At one time I thought: Well, they fell from trees, attached just before falling, and just happed to land on a structure (leaf, branch, side of building) on the way down and also attached to that. However, this was problematic because, if you've ever noticed, the angles between the attached ends of a single web-line can be far to shallow (say 20-30 degree slope for example) to be the result of accidentally falling. I seriously had to convince myself that no, the spider did not attach to a branch, drop to the ground, then walk across my grass without getting that web-line stuck on something - to then crawl up the side of my house to build ... a shortcut?
I just chatted this up in the company of a few long time friends and out of five people only one of them also had this same years long quandary. You'll be happy to know that they were also elated to finally have an answer to the question of these long single suspended spider web-lines. See this next image, then imagine having only one of those silk treads glinting in the sun, or you being the lucky person that unknowingly walked along a path where only one of them went across your face:
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballooning_(spider)#/media/File:Ballooning_spiderlings.jpg]Spiderlings ballooning[/url]
Finally, an answer. Yes I'm easily excited.