... allowing them to travel thousands of miles on windless days

• Spiders can fly thousands of miles using Atmospheric Potential Gradient (APG) 
• This is a global electric circuit that is always present in the Earth's atmosphere
• Linyphiid spiders were exposed to lab-controlled e-fields equivalent to the APG
• Scientists found that switching the e-field caused the spider to move upwards
• This proved that spiders can become airborne in the absence of wind using APG

The mystery of how spiders can fly for thousands of miles even in the complete absence of wind has finally been solved, researchers claim.

Arachnids travel through the air by releasing long fans of silk and floating away, in a process known as 'ballooning'.

The process that enables these wingless arthropods to float away when there is no wind and skies are overcast has intrigued scientists for hundreds of years.

The latest research shows arachnids can make use of electrostatic charges in the atmosphere to power their journeys.

This force, known as the e-field, can be detected by many insects and is used by honeybees to communicate with the hive.

Spider silk has long been known as an effective electric insulator, but until now, it wasn't thought spiders could detect and respond to e-fields in a similar way to bees.