Australian Spiders Weave A Wickedly Cool Web
On Monday, March 5th, about 8,000 people living in the low-lying areas of North Wagga Wagga, in New South Wales, Australia were ordered to evacuate their homes thanks to flash flooding caused by the overflowing Murrumbidgee River.
Fortunately, the waters soon subsided, and the residents were allowed return the next day, only to find that their normally green lawns had turned into a wintry wonderland. However, the soft feathery carpet was not snow, but the magical work of thousands of tiny Linyphiidae spiders that reside in the area.
According to experts, these tiny arachnids, that measure a mere one centimeter were also trying to escape from the rising waters. So, they performed a nifty trick called ballooning, whereby they let out individual silk strands to enable them to float up in the air with the wind.
Since there were only a few dry spots left, most of them landed close to each other on high grasslands, trees, shrubs and whatever else they could find to keep them from drowning. Once there, they did what they do best - weave soft wispy webs.
Also known as sheet weavers because of the shape of their webs or money spiders because they are believed to bring good luck, Linyphiidae spiders are quite common, especially in the Northern Hemisphere. However, very few people are aware of them because they are so tiny and usually construct their webs closer to the ground.
This is not the first-time spiders have created this kind of beautiful wonderland. When floods hit Pakistan in 2011, millions of spiders scrambled up trees to escape the water and covered them up with their silken nets. In this case, it also helped in the aftermath, because the webs trapped in malaria-carrying mosquitoes that multiply rapidly around stagnant waters.
Resources: ninemsn.co.au, smh.com.au, uniquedaily.com
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394 Comments
- beyblade dudeMonday, January 15, 2018 at 10:50 amrun for your lives people with arachnophobia 😱 🕷️
- the fun house21Saturday, June 10, 2017 at 11:34 pmthat is so cool imagine the spider.WOW!
- cat loverMonday, December 19, 2016 at 2:13 pmcool but disgusting at the same time
- luluSaturday, November 12, 2016 at 1:04 pmeww my friend whoul faint if she saw this!!!
- quesosombrerosFriday, October 28, 2016 at 6:03 amSpiders should wear cheese hats!🧀🎩🧀🎩🧀🎩🧀🎩
- meTuesday, January 5, 2016 at 3:21 pmi agree
- taco catWednesday, September 30, 2015 at 9:06 amawesome
- snugybugyThursday, September 24, 2015 at 11:51 amstay away spiders!!!!!
- snugybugyThursday, September 24, 2015 at 11:42 amthat is so gross!!! i am so glad that doesn't happen where i live!
- Shizzy ShivvyTuesday, June 23, 2015 at 2:25 pmI know right Dragonslay freaky and awesome at the same time but if my brother where to be there he would be rolling in all the silk like he's in snow ;)