AERIAL DISPERSAL BY ACTINOPUS SPIDERLINGS (ARANEAE: ACTINOPODIDAE).

NELSON FERRETTI; GABRIEL POMPOZZI; SOFÍA COPPERI; LEONELA SCHWERDT

JOURNAL OF ARACHNOLOGY

AMER ARACHNOLOGICAL SOC

Lugar: Nueva York; Año: 2013 vol. 41 p. 407 - 408

0161-8202

Balloning, a form of dispersal rarely seen in mygalomorph spiders, was observed in about 13 of an undetermined species of Actinopus under laboratory conditions. After ascending a shrub, each spiderling became airborne by dropping and dangling from a dragline which then gradually lifted and lengthened in the breeze, broke at its attachment point, and served as a ballooning thread. Spiderlings dropped 10 to 15 cm down from the edge on its dragline, and disperse aerially, both from the horizontal lines between sheets and from the sheets edges.