Large, Gliding Spiders Discovered in South American Forests (VIDEO)

First Posted: Aug 20, 2015 06:42 AM EDT

Scientists have discovered something unusual when they dropped spiders from a forest canopy. It turns out that some spiders can also glide in addition to jumping, creeping and falling.

In this case, the spider species is a nocturnal hunting spider two inches across. Rather like a human in a wingsuit, this spider can steer while falling in order to return to the tree from which if fell.

This spider actually joins a small number of non-flying insects that include ants, bristletails and some insect larvae. These insects are known to have the ability to maneuver while falling rather than dropping like a rock.

"My guess is that many animals living in the trees are good at aerial gliding from snakes and lizards to ants and now spiders," said Robert Dudley, one of the researchers, in a news release. "If a predator comes along, it frees the animal to jump if it has a time-tested way of gliding to the nearest tree rather than landing in the understory or in a stream."

This particular predatory spider was the only one that the researchers found could glide. Other arachnids merely plummeted to the Earth.

"As far as adult arthropods are concerned, only ants, bristletails and spiders use directed aerial descent," said Stephen Yanoviak, one of the researchers. "However, the wingless immature stages of various insects that are winged as adults can also glide really well. These include cockroaches, mantids, katydids, stick insects and true bugs."

The findings reveal a bit more about this type of behavior, and also may shed some light on the evolution of wings. The researchers believe that this directed aerial descent may have been the predecessor to flying.