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Can You Spot Them? The Amazing Co-op Camo of Masked Crab Spider Couples

STEM Snacks

Author

Steve Burgess
April 17, 2024

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spider disguised as part of a flower

image created by Steve Burgess

Flower Spider

Do flowers normally have 16 legs? Masked crab spider (Thomisus guangxicus) couples may be the first co-op camo arachnids ever found.

  • Native to Chinese rainforests

  • Web-less spiders, relying on hiding to catch prey

  • Females = “petals”, males = “pistil” (center)

This could explain the evolutionary advantage of such different appearances between genders. Though more research is needed to rule out lucky coincidence. *Double checks flowers in vase

AI (yai yai)

ChatGPT tries stand-up comedy. How do you think it did?

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Double-checked the flowers in my vase after reading about those spiders. No spiders, but I did find out my plant is plastic. Eight weeks of watering for nothing!

ChatGPT

Last week’s science in sweatpants

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