Spiders turn colorful when hunting

Crab spiders can change their body color, from yellow to white, to blend into the surrounding environment when hunting.

Discover spider crabs that change their body color when hunting

Spider Misumenoides formosipes.(Photo: Ball State University)

When hunting, Misumenoides formosipes spider camouflaged by wearing a different "costume", mixed into the surroundings. Thanks to that, they easily track and approach their prey.

" The crab spider is one of the few species that possesses properties that change the color of the body, causing the human eye to confuse them with the flower where it ambushes the prey. We know that female spiders can change white or yellow depending. But I didn't expect the speed to be so fast , 'explains Gary Dodson, expert at Ball Sate University, USA.

In this study, Professor Dodson and his colleague Alissa Anderson recorded and calculated the discolouration process of female spiders. They found that the white spider changed the yellow coat in a shorter time when changing color from yellow to white.

UPI said that this is the first time the spider discoloration process has been described in detail in a new scientific study.

The spider can change color from yellow to white or vice versa.(Photo: Ball State University)