Spider mimics ant (video screenshot)
(STUDY FINDS) – Scientists discover a unique spider that imitates plants and walks like ants to evade predators. The species, known as Siler collingwoodi, cleverly camouflages itself within surrounding plants and imitates ant movements to stay safe. Unlike other jumping spiders, they lift their front legs to mimic an ant’s antennae and move their abdomens in a bobbing motion to imitate the walk of an ant.
“Ant imitation is an effective defense strategy as ants are generally unappetizing to predators due to their prickly bodies, chemical defenses, venom, and their readiness to retaliate,” explains study author Dr. Hua Zeng, an ecologist at Peking University, in a media release. “Unlike typical ant-mimicking spiders that mimic the brown or black body color of ants, S. collingwoodi has brilliant body coloration. While it seems to blend well with plants from a human’s perspective, we wanted to test whether their body coloration served as camouflage to protect against predators.”
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To further investigate, researchers collected wild ant-mimicking spiders from four geographic locations in southern Hainan, China, and brought them to the lab for observation. They also collected another type of jumping spider that does not mimic ants, as well as five species of ants, to serve as models for comparison.
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