There seem to have been no arachnids flying WITH WINGS of any sort at any location or any time in the present or in the fossil record. Why is this?
Rationale for question :
If the process of evolution can be expected to explore all (or large numbers of) possibilities open for adaptation of any form, why has this never happened for arachnids which have been present on land in large numbers of species and individuals for about as long a time as insects?
Arachnids were among the first air-breathing terrestrial creatures so have had this option available for all this time, with apparently no sign of wings at all.
Winged flight offers major advantages to creatures that have evolved it, and has been evolved independently by many branches of the animal kingdom and apparently over relatively short timescales among those that have done this (e.g. bats have presumably evolved flight since the kT extinction of about 65 MY bp).
Flight is easier for smaller animals such as arachnids, as insects have shown, and insects have also shown that flight for small creatures is possible in oxygen levels at present, and levels have been much higher at times in the past.
N.B. !! We all know about spiders ballooning on silk ! This question is about WINGED flight. Please do not waste any of your time or ours on comments about ballooning ! That does not allow directed purposeful flight as wings do and is not a substitute adequate to account for this absence.
