WASHINGTON: Spiders can sail over the surface of water using specially-adapted legs as well as web material, a new study concludes. The arachnids do so by using silk as an anchor and their legs as sails, propelling themselves across the water in much the same way as a sailboat.
A total of 325 spiders from 21 species, collected from islands and nature preserves around Nottingham in the United Kingdom, were examined as part of this study. Researchers exposed the animals to blasts of air, comparing the actions of the spiders on solid surfaces to those on water.
This new finding could help explain why spiders are able to migrate across vast distances, quickly colonizing new habitats, researchers state. The spiders were capable of sailing across fresh and salt water in both calm and turbulent conditions.
“For the first time experts in the SpiderLab at The University of Nottingham have described how money spiders use water tension, their legs as a ‘rudder’ and a good following wind to propel themselves across water,” the University of Nottingham reports.
Spiders slow down, or even halt their travel on the water by deploying an anchor of webbing. Researchers believe this material can even be used to attach the animals to floating debris on open water or can be cast to a shoreline to bring the spider back to land.
Many spiders are also capable of a form of flight known as ballooning that can carry the animals up to 19 miles each day. This method of taking to the air involves catching the wind with silk, which provides the impetus to lift the arachnid off the ground. However, the spider has no control over where it travels, and biologists once believed the creature could be in serious danger if it landed on water.
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