unexpected side effect of the 2010 flooding in parts of Sindh, Pakistan

An unexpected side effect of the 2010 flooding in parts of Sindh, Pakistan, was that millions of spiders climbed up into the trees to escape the rising flood waters; because of the scale of the flooding and the fact that the water took so long to recede, many trees became cocooned in spiderwebs. People in the area had never seen this phenomenon before. (Courtesy: National Geographic)

wow .. that is creepy. does the natgeo article get into detail as to what type of spiders those are

grayzone said:

wow .. that is creepy. does the natgeo article get into detail as to what type of spiders those are

Click to expand...

Here is the article:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/pictures/110331-pakistan-flood-spider-trees-webs/

No it doesn't, it just states that spiders and possibly other insects created the webs. I agree with the first comment on that website though, I don't think spiders would become communal and build one shared web. Especially if there are different species involved.

Amazing photo! Thanks for posting.

Rabid538 said:

Here is the article:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/pictures/110331-pakistan-flood-spider-trees-webs/

No it doesn't, it just states that spiders and possibly other insects created the webs. I agree with the first comment on that website though, I don't think spiders would become communal and build one shared web. Especially if there are different species involved.

Click to expand...

thanks alot rabid. i also agree that they wouldnt become communal. if anything, territorial. alot would probably die of stress alone, id imagine

19tarantula91 said:

An unexpected side effect of the 2010 flooding in parts of Sindh, Pakistan, was that millions of spiders climbed up into the trees to escape the rising flood waters; because of the scale of the flooding and the fact that the water took so long to recede, many trees became cocooned in spiderwebs. People in the area had never seen this phenomenon before. (Courtesy: National Geographic)

Click to expand...

This totally just counted as extra credit for my Environmental Science: Atmospheric, Environment, and Population class! Thank you! :biggrin:

~Dano

Rabid538 said:

Here is the article:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/pictures/110331-pakistan-flood-spider-trees-webs/

No it doesn't, it just states that spiders and possibly other insects created the webs. I agree with the first comment on that website though, I don't think spiders would become communal and build one shared web. Especially if there are different species involved.

Click to expand...

I second that...

This phenomenon has been seen and reported before. I remember one such case in Texas a few years ago. The web spread for more than a hundred yards through trees along a watercourse. And - it was interspecies communal. Many arachnologists and other scientists went there to study it and they reported on what they found. A species of tetragnathid was the "core species", but at least half a dozen other species were living in the webs, including theridiids and salticids (which normally do not live in webs). Tetragnathid web structures were different than when the same species builds solitary webs. Not only were individual spiders within species more tolerant of each other than usual, but interspecies tolerance was much higher than normal. The reason for the webbing in the trees was NOT because of flooding driving the spiders up into the trees, but because the high waters near the trees were producing massive amounts of mosquitoes and other insects. Apparently when food is especially abundant spiders can get along with each other a lot better. As I mentioned, this phenomenon has been seen and studied before. The Texas case was not unique, nor is this Pakistan one.