Our beautiful planet: Blanketing a town in spider silk
Melanie Hall
September 14, 2018
Beautiful – or an arachnophobe’s nightmare? Either way, reams of spider silk covering an Australian town was an unusual and arresting sight.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/L. Coch
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For some, the swathes of spider silk blanketing fields turned landscapes into beautiful snow-like scenes; for arachnophobes, it looked more like a living nightmare.
This is what confronted residents in Wagga Wagga in eastern Australia after floodwaters swept through the town in 2012 following a week of record rain.
As the floods came in, the spiders moved upwardsImage: picture-alliance/dpa/L. Coch
Not only were thousands of people forced to flee their homes because of the floods – but masses of the ground-dwelling spiders also had to evacuate to higher ground.
To escape, the fleeing creatures – a type of wolf spider – can produce an individual strand of silk to catch the wind like a parachute.
This allows them to fly up and away into the air to travel over long distances, in what is called "ballooning."
The spiders produce silk while 'ballooning' away to escapeImage: picture-alliance/dpa/L. Coch
So the huge blanket of silk was the result of the spiders all trying to balloon away from the flooding en masse – earlier reports of webs covering fields were inaccurate, because wolf spiders don't produce webs.
Unlike other spiders, which make webs to catch prey, wolf spiders instead run and pounce on their victims.
Wolf spiders are usually solitary creaturesImage: picture-alliance/dpa/L. Coch
This kind of wolf spider, which measures up to 1cm long, is considered relatively harmless and is usually very solitary – but the extreme flooding forced them to all escape together and therefore come into close contact with another.
There are thought to be 130 species of wolf spider in Australia alone. But sights like the one produced in Wagga Wagga in 2012 are rare.
The wondrous world of African bugs
Though usually small, insects play an oversized role in Africa's huge and complex ecosystem. Some are helpful, some are dangerous. Some are simply dazzling. But together they are all an integral part of life in Africa.
Image: "Warren.K.Dick Photography"
The amazing Picasso bug
African art had a powerful influence on Picasso, did Picasso influence African insects? Otherwise known as the Zulu Hud Bug, this colorful shield-backed creature is often mistaken for a beetle. Its geometric design helps it blend into its surrounding and is meant to warn off predators. Full grown Picassos are only around 8 millimeters long and live in tropical Africa from Ivory Coast to Ethiopia.
Image: "Warren.K.Dick Photography"
Termite construction workers
Not many insects are known for their creative architectural abilities, but here termites in Namibia's central Otjozondjupa region have built amazingly tall structures in the savannah. Such mound-builders live throughout Africa, Australia and South America. Their complex structures full of tunnels cover a subterranean nest and are so well built they often outlive their termite builders.
Image: picture-alliance/ZB/M. Tödt
Giant devil's flower mantis
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Image: Imago/Blickwinkel
The giant African fruit beetle
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Image: Imago/Blickwinkel
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Image: Colourbox
The killer mosquito
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Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Pleul
A rainbow milkweed locust
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Image: picture-alliance/Wildlife/F. Teigler
The African honeybee
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