Spiders are recruiting after death

In an experiment to understand the spider's ability to live in flooding, French scientists were surprised to find they did not die after being submerged in the water.

Arctosa fulvolineata spiders can live 36 hours in the water. They live in saline swamps. Photo: National Geographic.

Some spiders and insects have the ability to sustain life when immersed in water. But no scientist has ever tested that ability by experiment. Experts from the University of Rennes (France) are the first to conduct experiments to find out when spiders can live underwater. In addition, they want to know whether spiders in flood-prone areas can live longer than water spiders in the forest.

The team captured individuals from three wolf spider species: Pardosa lugubris, Pardosa purbeckensis, Arctosa fulvolineata. Two species live in salt marshes, the other species live in the forest. As expected, when the water is submerged, all spiders live in the forest after 24 hours. Two species that live in saline swamps live longer.

Scientists pick up spiders and dry their bodies. A few hours later, strange things happened. At first, the spider's legs moved, then they crawled away. 'This is the first time we have witnessed an arthropod regenerating from a coma after being submerged , ' said Julien Pétillon, the research leader.

Arctosa fulvolineata , spiders live the longest in the country, only need two hours to wake up. It seems that the spiders only fall into a coma to survive when immersed in the water. In the wild, this spider species never avoids water when floods occur, while marshy species often climb high branches according to the increase of water. Spider's survival procedure depends on its ability to switch to a particular metabolic mode, whereby spiders do not need air and energy is only provided for the most necessary functions.

'There may be many other species with similar capabilities, but we have not found them yet,' Pétillon said.