Animals & nature · 2018
Can electric fields like those in the atmosphere trigger spiders to take off on silk?
Yes. In experiments with spiders, vertical electric fields comparable to those in the atmosphere triggered silk-assisted flight behavior and takeoff. This shows that electric forces can be sufficient under the tested conditions, but does not establish how much they contribute to spider flight in nature compared with wind.
Details
Spiders can travel by climbing to a high point, releasing silk and floating away—a behavior called ballooning. Light wind is usually thought to lift them, but current models of airflow do not fully explain how ballooning works.
Researchers tested whether electric fields comparable to those in the atmosphere could stimulate this behavior. Vertical electric fields elicited ballooning and takeoff. The researchers also examined sensory hairs under electric-field and airflow stimulation, finding that weak electric fields physically moved these hairs. This supports a possible way for spiders to detect the fields.
The central finding is that an electric force can be sufficient for ballooning under experimental conditions, not that wind is irrelevant. The authors suggest that atmospheric electricity might also help spiders identify favorable times to depart, but that role in nature remains a proposed interpretation. The abstract does not report species, sample size or detailed control comparisons.
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