Don’t Panic, But This Spider Can Actually Fly

This ability most likely occurred as an evolutionary measure since, not only do the spiders need to jump off of branches to escape predatory ants, but falling all the to the ground can put them at risk at being eaten by other predators as well.

Scientists watched tropical spiders “fly” through the air – gliding effortlessly to nearby tree trunks, without “cheating” by using their webs.

Characterised by a flat body, which has earned them the nickname “flatties”, they quickly right themselves and get into a posture similar to that of skydivers. To find out just how agile the canopy-dwelling spiders are, the team went to Panama and Peru, where they dropped them from a height and filmed their descent (shown above). Researchers set about finding out if spiders of the genus Selenops, nicknamed “flatties”, might also be able to glide to safety.The method was simple: the scientists dropped the spiders from treetops.

Given that spiders don’t have wings, Yanoviak said, they don’t technically fly, but he told National Geographic this type of behavior might have evolved because landing on a tree trunk could be considered safer than the open rain forest floor.

Researchers claim that they have discovered the first spider that can maneuver itself while gliding through the air just like a base jumper.

“We really did not expect to see gliding behavior in spiders”. How do they target a tree?

The duo even saw some spiders bounce of the tree trunk, recover and successfully land on it at the second attempt.

Indeed, other researchers have already found snakes that use a “UFO shape” to glide and Dudley’s team discovered gliding ants about a decade ago.

The surprising discovery was made in South America, where the researchers found that certain spiders can literally perform skydiving when dropped from a bucket located on top of a tree that was 20 to 25 meters high. In addition to the aforementioned creatures, younger versions of insects that grow wings as adults can also have the ability.

“As far as adult arthropods are concerned, only ants, bristletails, and spiders use directed aerial descent”, said co-author Stephen Yanoviak, professor of biology at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. “These include cockroaches, mantids, katydids, stick insects and true bugs”, Yanoviak said.

“Gliding spiders represent an unlikely if not truly ungainly aerodynamic platform”, reads the paper, which appeared in the Royal Society journal Interface.