Biologist Brian Gall was flinging stowaway spiders out of his kayak when he noticed an interesting pattern: After landing on the water’s surface, the arachnids quickly darted to the nearest shoreline, no matter how far he paddled from dry land.
The passengers, elongate stilt spiders (Tetragnatha elongata), spin their webs on the edges of ponds to catch prey. When the spiders tumble into the water, which happens often, they rely on surface tension to evade predators and skitter to shore. But just how the stilt spiders navigate the water’s surface has been unclear — until now. The arachnids appear to use light reflected off the water to pinpoint the
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