"just"

Hasn’t this been known for some time? Perhaps I’m confusing these spiders with ones that simply form wind sails.

Well. Fuck.

Is this study (afaik published in 2018, but the paper is different to the 2021 one?) distinct from the others? I'm guessing they detailed the "electric" part better?

Edit:
Ohhh, it was about electric fields specifically. The 2018 paper only had airflow, they ar added/experimented with electric fields in the next study (it wasn't new, just nobody tested it):

However, a recent experiment showed that exposure to an electric field alone can induce spiders’ pre-ballooning behaviours (tiptoe and dropping/dangling) and even pulls them upwards in the air. The controversy between explanations of ballooning by aerodynamic flow or the earth’s electric field has long existed.

More from wiki/Ballooning_(spider):

It is observed in many species of spiders, such as Erigone atra, Cyclosa turbinata, as well as in spider mites (Tetranychidae) and in 31 species of lepidoptera, distributed in 8 suborders. Bell and his colleagues put forward the hypothesis that ballooning first appeared in the Cretaceous. A 5-year-long research study in the 1920s–1930s revealed that 1 in every 17 invertebrates caught mid-air is a spider. Out of 28,739 specimens, 1,401 turned out to be spiders.

Although this phenomenon has been known since the time of Aristotle, the first precise observations were published by the arachnologist John Blackwall in 1827. Several studies have since made it possible to analyze this behavior. One of the most important and extensive studies exploring ballooning was funded by U.S. Department of Agriculture and performed between 1926 and 1931 by a group of scientists. The findings were published in 1939 in a 155-page bulletin compiled by P. A. Glick.

It seems more researchers were electrifying spiders (links to older studies):

A 2018 study concluded that electric fields provide enough force to lift spiders in the air, and possibly elicit ballooning behavior.[1], [2]

The Earth's static electric field may also provide lift in windless conditions.[9], [10] Ballooning behavior may be triggered by favorable electric fields.[11], [12]

Wiki also has a pic from Cho's paper (2018):

TIL:

Some mites and some caterpillars also use silk to disperse through the air.

... also I'm 100% sure the spiders let out a tiny 'wiiiiii' when they get airborne ...

I didn't know that spiders could get any cooler

How do the electric fields holds up the scientists?

Pictured is a banana spider, shitloads of them around here. Those are not flying. Looks like this one is making the zig-zag thing some orb weavers make.

Cool fact! They're also called Golden Orb Weavers because their webs shine gold when the sun hits right.

This spider is clearly on a mission, it has an objective and won't let anything get in the way of it.

flying nope

I recently heard a lecture that claimed that "halos” or "auras" some people see are humans' magnetic fields. I'd like to see some research on it.

Im imagining Eureka Seven but with spiders riding surfboards instead of mech its spider.

Next they figure out that Dandelion chutes actually use charge differences to fly or something.