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or do they just crawl away? (I know this may sound kind of stupid but I am just dying to know )

2007-03-13 00:26:49 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics Zoology

4 answers

Spiders do not have wings, so they cannot "fly"! Many spiders, however, will "spit out" enough web material ("silk") that it catches the wind and carries them away...

From "the World Almanac for Kids":

http://www.worldalmanacforkids.com/explore/animals/spider.html


"Spider silk is a fibrous protein that is secreted as a fluid and forms a polymer, on being stretched, that is much stronger than steel and further resists breakage by its elasticity. A single spider can spin several kinds of silk. Although some other invertebrates also spin silk, spiders put this ability to the most spectacular variety of uses. For example, they form draglines that help them to find their way about and to catch themselves if they fall. Small and, especially, young spiders spin a “parachute” thread that enables them to be carried by the wind, sometimes for hundreds of kilometers. The males use silk in transferring sperm to the palpal organ, and the females make cocoons with it. Silk is also used to make nests and other chambers and to line burrows. The most familiar and amazing use of silk by many species, however, is in making insect traps called spiderwebs"


P.S. You should read the book by E.B.White, it's much better than the movie!

2007-03-13 00:39:29 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

Yes indeed - have you ever seen maple tree seeds spinning down like little helicopters, or fluffy seed-lifters carrying dandelion or milkweed seeds through the air? These are ways for the plant seeds to spread away from the parent, and hopefully disperse into a wider area. For similar reasons, many spiders "balloon" when they're babies (and some do it even when they're adults). They climb to the top of some high point and extrude some silk until it catches the breeze and lifts them into the air. They can travel much farther this way than they could by walking, and they do it faster.

2007-03-13 02:09:44 · answer #2 · answered by John R 7 · 0 0

There actually are very small spiders which spin a line of web under certain weather circumstances, let go, and you can see the bits of web flying through the air. The tiny spider on the end keeps the web upright, and with the light behind it, it's quite a spectacular sight seeing all these shining bits of web gently changing location.

2007-03-13 00:34:32 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

Yep, certain kinds of baby spiders really do fly. They climb up to the top of bushes or grass stalks, then let out a long line of silk until they have enough wind resistance to get blown along by the breeze.

I have seen this many times on a sunny summer day, long filaments of silk just barely reflecting enough light to be seen, and when I mean long, I mean loooong!

Keep you eye open, especially if you live in the country, and you might see it yourself.

2007-03-13 00:34:56 · answer #4 · answered by Tim M 1 · 1 0

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