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'Ballooning' is a unique method of dispersal used by several taxa of spiders. Individuals, usually young animals, climb to the top of a perch and when a breeze comes, spin a long, thin silk thread from their silk glands. The thread acts as a 'parasail' and a gust of wind will lift them up into the air and carry them away, perhaps for hundreds of kilometers. Sometimes, huge numbers of spiders will be dispersing in a given area. These pictures of ballooning spiders were taken in Autumn in the Biebrza National Park of northeast Poland, near the small city of Bialystok. They left behind enormous quantites of silk that covered the ground, a phenomenon sometimes called 'gossamer'. |
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