How Do Flies Turn Into Spiders?

It’s not entirely clear how spiders get to their high altitudes, but it’s known that they have eight jointed legs. This means that they’ve adapted a complex way to travel and use electricity to balloon. But the exact mechanism of how they turn into spiders is still unknown. Researchers have studied some of these creatures in wind tunnels, and they’ve observed that they wait for the right conditions before ballooning.

The process involves a female spider luring a fly away from her clutch. The fly then lays her predatory grub on the spider’s eggs. In order to prevent the spider from eating the fly’s eggs, the fly larva needs about a quarter-hour to chew into the spider’s egg sac. It can then flick the intruder away, recognizing the fly by the buzz of its wings. The larva also tries to position itself in front of the spider’s eggs. Eventually, it hangs onto the centre of the web and vibrates it to distract the spider from the eggs.

The experiments were conducted on lab-grown spiders, but they have not been performed on natural spiders. Researchers also don’t know whether spiders can move in the absence of wind.

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