The Importance of a Filament-like Structure in Aerial Dispersal and the Rarefaction Effect of Air Molecules on a Nanoscale Fiber: Detailed Physics in Spiders' Ballooning.

Integrative and Comparative Biology
Moonsung Cho, Iván Santibáñez Koref

Abstract

Many flying insects utilize a membranous structure for flight, which is known as a "wing." However, some spiders use silk fibers for their aerial dispersal. It is well known that spiders can disperse over hundreds of kilometers and rise several kilometers above the ground in this way. However, little is known about the ballooning mechanisms of spiders, owing to the lack of quantitative data. Recently, Cho et al. discovered previously unknown information on the types and physical properties of spiders' ballooning silks. According to the data, a crab spider weighing 20 mg spins 50-60 ballooning silks simultaneously, which are about 200 nm thick and 3.22 m long for their flight. Based on these physical dimensions of ballooning silks, the significance of these filament-like structures is explained by a theoretical analysis reviewing the fluid-dynamics of an anisotropic particle (like a filament or a high-slender body). (1) The filament-like structure is materially efficient geometry to produce (or harvest, in the case of passive flight) fluid-dynamic force in a low Reynolds number flow regime. (2) Multiple nanoscale fibers are the result of the physical characteristics of a thin fiber, the drag of which is proportional to its lengt...Continue Reading

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Citations

Nov 4, 2020·Integrative and Comparative Biology·Ulrike K Müller, Simon Poppinga
Mar 14, 2021·Journal of Comparative Physiology. A, Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology·Moonsung Cho

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