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How baby spiders fly
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That shiny thread on the fence this morning? Someone flew in on it.
Baby spiders climb a grass blade and let out silk.
The Earth's own electric field lifts them off.
Some go a few yards. Some go miles.
Darwin watched thousands rain down on his ship, 60 miles out at sea.
One was caught by a plane 15,000 feet up.
So that thread on your fence? It might be a landing strip.
Go find a thread.
On a sunny fall morning, look low across the lawn for silk catching the light.
Data: Darwin's Beagle journal (1832), a 1939 USDA airplane survey, Morley and Robert in Current Biology (2018), and the Missouri Department of Conservation.