Thursday, March 8, 2012

Spiders Spin Out After NSW Floods

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8:45PM Yesterday | Danny Allen
In Wagga Wagga, floods have sadly forced over 9000 people to leave their homes for higher ground – and they’re not the only ones. Thousands of these spiders, which locals call sheet weavers, are escaping the waters at any high-point they can find. And get this: they have a special ability that may kind of blow you away.
Image credits: Top: AAP Image/Lukas Coch via News.com.au; above Daniel Munoz/Reuters via New Scientist.
The freaky things are able to release strands of web, specifically designed to catch the wind and “balloon” them to a new area. Apparently flood events can trigger mass ballooning behaviour.
Image: Daniel Munoz, Reuters via ABC Australia
It’s not the first time we’ve seen this either. After Pakistan’s most recent massive floods, locals saw huge trees fully covered with thousands of spiderwebs. Crazy.

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