Brazil went "rain" of social spiders

Arachnophobia Brazilian recently had hard times - in the town of Santo Antonio da Platina went "rain" of spiders. In the video, filmed by 20-year-old web designer Eric Reyes, it is clear that the trees and power lines hanging a huge network in which hundreds of spiders crawling. For some time the spiders were crawling up and down, and then began to pour down on the ground.

Later, the experts explained that the troublemakers were spider species Anelosimus eximius. They may be called "social" spiders. Usually, they get together to hunt together and weave a spider web, in order to trap more insects.





Such social - a real rarity among spiders. Today, scientists know of about 40 000 species of spiders worldwide, but only 23 of them prefer to live in colonies, like ants or bees. One such colony spiders can total more than 50 000 individuals, mostly females - ratio in favor of females about 10: 1. They can extend the network from the ground up to the tree crowns, in other words, up to 20 m in height.

Under the influence of a strong wind can break a giant spider's web with the spider anchor and carry along with their ruined house in the new places where they fall to the ground like rain. Most likely, because the colony of spiders got in Santo Antonio da Platina.



via factroom.ru