Flood Spiders

These amazing images were shared by the ever interesting Watershed plus (a major water infrastructure project for the City of Calgary led by Glasgow artists Sans façon)

An unexpected side effect of the 2010 flooding in parts of Sindh, Pakistan, was the trees cocooned in webs. It is not clear if the spiders and other insects that created these coccons climbed in the trees to escape the rising flood water, or if the floods produced huge numbers of flies and a feeding frenzy by spiders and insects that led to a population explosion.

The unusual cocoons were a mixed blessing: The huge webs ultimately killed many of the trees they covered, perhaps by reducing the amount of sunlight reaching their leaves. But for a while, the webs also seemed to help trap more mosquitoes in the region, thereby reducing the risk of malaria.

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Photographs by Russell Watkins