The meaning of Spidey is literally tingling! Arachnids detect the Earth's electric field and use it to fly away.

Up, up, and away in my silky eight-legged balloon

A hot air balloon spider from a daisy. Image Credit: Michael Hutchinson

Video Spiders can detect the electric field of the Earth and use it to take off and fly in the air, according to new research.

Frightening creatures raise their legs and point their body bulbs skyward before pulling silk lines, using the material to float in a gentle breeze. The process known as hot air ballooning can carry them over great distances, hundreds of kilometers away, and they are even recorded on ships sailing in the middle of the ocean.

Here is a short video showing the creatures who balloon

Youtube Video

It was previously thought that wind pulling spiders, but researchers at the University of Bristol, England, believe that it is not the only force involved.

"We find that the presence of a vertical [electric field] causes a bloating behavior and a spider's takeoff, "writes Erica Morley, postdoctoral researcher in sensory biophysics, and Daniel Robert, professor of bionanoscience, in a published article Thursday in Cell

.Arachnids is at a set of hairs known as trichobothria that cover their eight legs.Trichobothria can detect the Earth's electric field and the electrical potential difference between the positively charged atmosphere and the negatively charged surface

Raining arachnids

Storms flood the sky with electric charges to create a potential atmospheric gradient, and on a clear day it can reach e 100V per meter, a stormy day this can reach 10 kilovolts.

Spiders use this to their advantage. The silk threads spin from their bodies and accumulate a net negative charge that pushes the negative charge back onto the surface of the Earth to propel it into the air.

Researchers placed Erigone spiders, a native species in North America. in a box stuck between two metal plates connected to a power source.

When the plates were electrically charged, the spiders began to push their legs in the air and pulled out their abdomen, a position known as tiptoe. It is observed before swelling. When the power was turned off, the scary critters stopped walking on tiptoe.

"The next step will be to look for other animals to detect and use electric balloon fields as well. We also hope to conduct further research on the physical properties of silk ballooning and perform balloon studies in the field, "said Morley. Mites and caterpillars are also known to use the balloon as a mode of travel. ®

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