As revealed by a team of researchers from the American universities of Louisville and California, in Berkeley, in the Royal Society Interface magazine, when these animals rush from the canopy, they use their limbs to plan and change course in mid-flight, so that manage to “land” without problems on a log located even 25 meters below.
Biologist Stephen P. Yanoviak, who coordinated the study, points out that this behavior had already been detected in certain insects, such as some species of ants. However, it is the first time it has been observed in arachnids. Moreover, the Selenops banski spiders that you have examined usually perform the same maneuver: after a few moments of free fall, in which they travel between 5 and 8 meters (they move at a speed of 3 meters per second), they modify the trajectory to position themselves on the side of the trunk and reach your goal.
Yanoviak and his collaborators dropped 59 specimens from the top of trees and determined that this was the case 93% of the time. Scientists don’t yet know exactly how they do this, but they suspect that spiders use their two front legs to correct course.
Image: Mark Yokoyama / Flickr
