A Ball State University professor and alum have identified a spider species that is able to change colors to match its background when hunting, a rare ability in the animal kingdom.

Gary Dodson, Ball State biology professor, and Alissa Anderson, who graduated with a master’s degree in 2012 and is currently pursuing a doctorate at the University of Nebraska, are the first to measure the rate of color change in the whitebanded crab spider, or Misumenoides formosipes. Their study was recently published in the journal Ecological Entomology.

“This species of spider crab is one of the few that can reversibly change their body color in a manner that to the human eye results in a match to the flowers on which they ambush prey,” said Dodson.

Researchers used computer software to measure the time it takes the crab spiders to change colors after being moved from one flower color to another. They found that it took three to nine days for the spiders to change their body color from white to yellow.

Surprisingly, they also determined that most yellow spiders chose to move away from the white flowers they had been placed on rather than changing the color of their bodies to white. A possible explanation is that changing from white to yellow may be less physiologically difficult than the reverse.

“It’s been a fascinating species to study,” said Dodson.

Source: Ball State University