Up, Up And Away

Spiders can fly!

I watched this small crab spider scramble from a hawkweed flower to a bud and then to a seedhead. It wiggled its legs to test the wind conditions with its leg hairs and then stood on tiptoe with its abdomen in the air and released a strand of gossamer. I found it shortly afterwards on a nearby hoary plantain seedhead. It had 'flown' from one plant to the other. This is known as ballooning. Spiders can 'fly' hundreds of miles using this method. 

I've added a jumping spider to extras. They use gossamer threads as drag lines.