Meet the tiny jumping spider that walks like a feisty ant to evade predators
- Siler collingwoodi evades spider-eating spiders but does not fool all hunters, Peking University researchers find
- ‘Being a general mimic rather than perfectly mimicking one ant species could benefit the spiders by allowing them to expand their range’, study co-author says
To avoid being eaten, a tiny Asian jumping spider walks like its insect neighbours, mimicking ants with strong defences that bite back with mandibles and may carry venom, according to a new study.
While its gait does not provide universal protection, the Siler collingwoodi spider also has a colourful body that aids its camouflage in the red-flowering West Indian jasmine, the plant it lives in.
A team from Peking University’s school of life sciences published its findings in the peer-reviewed journal iScience on May 17.
“We found that [the spiders] typically move in a fashion similar to that of multiple sympatric ants, whereas the bright-coloured appearance blends … well into their living environment,” the team wrote in the article.
The researchers collected samples of the S. collingwoodi spider from southern Hainan and observed how they moved in a laboratory.
The scientists found that the spider walks in an antlike manner – raising its front legs to mimic an ant’s antennae, bobbing the abdomen and lifting its legs to walk, instead of jumping like typical jumping spiders.