What is ballooning?

VigyanShaala-Kalpana
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Nephilia pilipes

  • It is a common species of golden orb web -spider.

  • Commonly found in primary and secondary forests and gardens.

  • They prefer moist habitats with no direct sunlight

  • They are distributed along coastal lines,where precipitation is ample.

  • They can survive in many climate types,including temperate coastal,mediterranean,subtropical and tropical savannah climate

  • It has a thermoregulatory behaviour.

  • BALLOONING - is the pattern of dispersal of the spiderlings shown by the nephilia sp.

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Interesting! I am curious to know why is there a pattern for dispersal of the spiderlings and what about other spider species?

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The mass hatching of spiders, producing long strands of silk that catch in the wind to disperse them to another location.This process is called “ballooning” and it enables them to float long distances.It is shown by orb weaving spiders mainly,but is present in many other spider families. :spider:…

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Can you explain what you mean by “orb weaving spiders” and what would be the “other” kind of spiders? Also, I am curious to know what is the motivation behind ballooning and why only some spider families do it but not others?

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1.Orb-weaver spiders** are members of the family Araneidae . They are the most common group of builders of spiral wheel-shaped webs often found in gardens, fields, and forests. The English word orb can mean “circular”, hence the English name of the group.
2. Ballooning , sometimes called kiting , is a process by which spiders, and some other small invertebrates, move through the air by releasing one or more gossamer threads to catch the wind, causing them to become airborne at the mercy of air currents and electric fields.
3. Theridiidae and Linyphiidae are the other major species showing ballooning besides the Araniidae family.
4. Ballooning was found to be more frequent in immature individuals, especially during the summer, in agreement with
previous studies . This can be mainly attributed to the physiological conditions immature individuals experience
during their development or immediately after hatching from the egg bag. Ballooning could be stimulated by the lack of food realized after emergence, or inferred from development based on maternal condition and resource allocation to eggs

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Thanks for providing the details. I have one strong suggestion. Whenever you are just copying and pasting something from the net, please put those under quotation marks and share the reference or cite the source. Otherwise, it is a good practice to read something and express the details in your own words, sharpens your communication skills and in this case you can just put the source/reference.

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Thank you for your valuable suggestion .