Escape Goat
Member
That's because Kuntner and colleagues suspect they've found a new species of orb-weaving spiderand the first one known to mimic a leaf.
The arachnid uses its silk to attach leaves to tree branches, and then hides among the branches, according to a new study in the Journal of Arachnology. The researchers still aren't sure why the spider does this, but they believe it's likely to hide from predators or sneak up on prey.
That's especially true of the leaf-mimicking spider, which apparently drags dead leaves from the ground up into the tree to help conceal its presence.
Like these leaves, the spider is brownish green in color, with a long necklike structure connecting its head and chest to its abdomen. Its teardrop-shaped body even has markings that resemble the veins on a leaf.
Its disguise is so good that it might explain why so few of these spiders have been collected. Even trained scientists have a hard time spotting them, Kuntner adds.
