Sylar Collingwoodymimics the gait of ants to escape predators. “>
Expanding / colorful jumping spider Sylar Collingwoody It mimics the walking style of ants to escape from predators. (Credit: Hua Zeng)
We usually think of camouflage in nature in terms of body color. This allows the seeds to blend into the background and escape predators. However, previous studies have documented movement mimicry not only in jumping spiders, but also in some species, such as swallowtail butterflies and fly moths. Myrmalachne formicaria, Mimics the ant’s limb usage and general movements. The latter is an example of perfect mimicry and is generally considered the most effective at escaping predators.
But Hua Zeng, an ecologist at Peking University in China, and his colleagues were intrigued by the colorful jumping spiders. Sylar Collingwoody, decided to perform some laboratory experiments to demonstrate imperfect mimicry and determine how this confers a protective effect. They also set out to investigate the effectiveness of spider coloring as a camouflage strategy and described their findings as follows: new paper It was published in iScience magazine.
“Unlike typical ant mimetic spiders, which mimic the brown or black body coloration of ants, S. Collingwoody It has a bright body color. ” Mr. Zeng said.. “To the human eye, they seem to blend in well with the vegetation in their environment, but we wanted to test whether their body colors acted as camouflage to protect them from predators.” is.”
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