I have a book coming out next year about the effect of insects on human history. As you might imagine, malaria figures into the book pretty heavily, as it’s been a terrible scourge of a disease since ancient times. And of course it is vectored by a certain species of mosquito.
I wanted to show you these spookily beautiful pictures that were taken a year ago in Pakistan’s Sindh province, courtesy of the UK Department for International Development, after much of the country experienced devastating floods.
It seems that hungry spiders, fleeing from rising floodwaters, convened in the trees. They spun webs to catch insects. Because the waters took so long to recede, many of the trees became almost completely gauzed over with spider webs. The happy result (in an otherwise devastating event) was that rates of malaria in the area plummeted.
I just think these photos are awesome. 