This Camouflaged Spider can Change its Color

According to the study, the pair used Adobe Photoshop software to measure the rate of color change as the spiders moved from one flower to another of a different hue. They found that unlike chameleons or cuttlefish, which are famous for their stunningly fast and accurate active camouflage abilities, these spiders can take three to nine days to undergo an adequate change.

What's more, when given a choice between changing their color or simply moving back to a habitat that they'd better blend into, the spiders will choose the latter every time. One possible explanation, the researchers suggest, is that swapping between white or yellow can be rather exhausting for the arachnid.

Still, as the spiders tend to live among either yellow or white flowering plants exclusively, the limitations of their intriguing ability are not noticeable. In fact, males of the species, which cannot change color, have a hard time finding mates at all.

"They can't see the females, yet they find them at a rate that random searching could not explain," Dodson added. "We documented that the males will optimize their searches by moving toward the odor of a flower species on which sedentary females hunt for prey."

In past work, Dodson had observed how the males, desperate to find a mate, will gather en-masse around the right kind of flowers, often fighting to the death amongst one another for the privilege to even be near an elusive female.

"Overall, it has been a fascinating animal to study," he said.

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