Wingtails

Wingtails are a descendant family of modern springtails which thrive in the inland rainforests of the Second Carboniferous.

Description
Wingtails are creatures the size of bats which play a similar role. Their legs have evolved special hairs resembling feathers, creating a complex apparatus allowing for long-distance gliding. Their furculae have become modified appendages which, in concert with a modified, flexible abdominal structure, allow them to cling to tree branches and hang upside-down. Arguably, wingtails are capable of powered flight, though their ability to fly is clumsy and often interrupted by furcula thrashing.

These animals feed by flinging themselves with great force from their perches and gliding across tracts of forest, snapping up smaller gliding arthropods such as clingers and their kin as well as some of the smaller flying plastic insects. Wingtails have an uncanny ability to predict the flight path of approaching arthropods by detecting small vibrations in the air with their leg setae, which they position like a fan when hanging upside-down in order to hone in on their prey. Hanging wingtails also feed by scraping moss, fungi, and lichens off branches when these materials are available.

Role in Salticid Society
Due to their small size relative to salticids, as well as the bitter taste of their innards, wingtails generally are not eaten directly, but are instead farmed as feeders for livestock spiders. Wingtail farming is almost universal in salticid society, having been developed independently on all three continents and most islands.