Spiders discovered that sense electric fields and use them to fly • The Register

Warning, this thing will jump

A hot air balloon spider from a daisy. According to a new study, spiders can detect the electric field of the Earth and use it to take off and fly in the air.

Frightening critters raise their legs and point their bulbous bodies to the sky. pulling silk lines to float in a light 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 the attraction of the wind was chasing spiders, but researchers at Bristol University believe that this is not the only force.

"We find that the presence of a vertical [electric field] causes balloon behavior." Erica Morley, Senior Postdoctoral Researcher in Sensory Biophysics, and Daniel Robert, Professor of Bionanoscience, wrote in an article published in Cell

The secret of airborne arachnids rests on a set of hairs known as trichobothria that cover their eight legs.Trichobothria can detect the electric field of the Earth 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.On clear weather, it can reach 100V per meter, a stormy day it can reach 10 kilovolts.

Spiders use this to their advantage, silk threads spinning and accumulating a net negative charge which repels the negative charge on the surface of the Earth to propel it in the air.

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

When the plates were electrically charged, the spiders began to push their legs in the air and pull 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. ®

Sponsored:
Minds Mastering Machines – Call for Papers Now Open