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Bialowieza Forest, admiring biodiversity: Indian summer in the Forest
During the beautiful autumn weather in recent days, the ForBioSensing team working in the Forest observes how the air fills with silver thread spiders. This phenomenon is called "the Indian summer time". It is reflected in numerous poetry, paintings and photographs. What is it about?
Summer gossip is a thin, long thread of cobwebs, floating in the air under the influence of wind on warm autumn days. On these threads, spiders (young, which are very light, and their weight ranges from 0.2 to 1 milligram), move long distances in search of shelter for the winter. Thanks to the extraordinary ability to spread, they inhabit most of the area of all continents. In this area of a large forest area, which is the Białowieża Forest.
Many researchers say that spiders are able to decide where to land, but this is not proven. During the flight, the animals are able to fly over 2 km and overcome considerable distances (up to 5000 km) using the web. Such air travels, with no possibility of feeding, can last 25 days or more. Significant body dryness and low temperature are a big obstacle for small travelers.
Today we have the opportunity to present you threads of spiders. The employees of our project immortalized them in the pictures during a cold morning in the Forest. The shots were taken during the fog, which gives them a bit of a dark character.
We invite you to look at the pictures in the gallery.
Photos. Kamil Pilch, Text. W.Dananowska