In a first, these crab spiders appear to collaborate, creating camouflage

Some crab spiders have ditched webs for flowers. Masters of disguise, female Thomisus guangxicus spiders blend in with petals, which allows the arachnids to nab insects that pass by while fooling wasps, lizards and birds that may munch on them. Now, scientists have discovered a male spider joining the illusionary camouflage.

The finding may be the first known example of cooperative camouflage among spiders, ecologists Shi-Mao Wu and Jiang-Yun Gao of Yunnan University in Kunming, China, report March 1 in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. It suggests that some organisms’ survival strategies may be more baffling than we realize, Wu says (SN: 11/20/20).

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