Wolf Spider (zh) (3/5)

Araneae: Lycosidae

Lycosidae sp  

Two photos of Wolf Spider spiderlings in the countdown to take-off.

Atop a post, stretching tall on their young legs, all eight of them, the spinnerets at the tip of their abdomens raised as high as possible, and barely perceptible in the photographs, their flimsy craft, tiny lines of silk being spun out into the breeze for perhaps several metres.

When sufficient lift is attained, the spiderlings take off from the post, returning to earth perhaps a few metres away, a few hundred metres, a few kilometres, or even hundreds of kilometres.

It's an amazing feat. Spiderlings, days old with a brain smaller than a pinhead do this. Me, I couldn't tie my shoelaces until I was six years old.