Castaway Ghost Spiders Flew to Robinson Crusoe Island

Arachnophobes might be shocked to learn that some spiders can fly hundreds of miles across the ocean.

Two million years ago, airborne arachnids colonized remote Pacific islands by ballooning, a technique in which spiders use their silk as a kind of kite that can carry them long distances. (Read about spiders that can fly without silk—and steer in midair.)

These so-called ghost spiders likely landed on Robinson Crusoe Island (map), roughly 400 miles off Chile, where they blossomed into several new species. And now scientists have identified at least three previously unknown to science, a new study says.

The rugged island is named in honor of a privateer marooned there in the early 1700s who may have inspired Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe.Read More