Ever since Charles Darwin found spiders inexplicably appearing onboard HMS Beagle in 1832, scientists wondered about mechanisms allowing spiders to travel in the air. Charles Darwin was surprised to find thousands of small red spiders aboard his ship which was 60 miles offshore. “In the evening all the ropes were coated & fringed with Gossamer web,” wrote Darwin in his diary. The tiny arachnids were wingless, as all spiders are.