Amazing acts of nature….The spider masquerading as BIRD POO: Arachnid weaves white web and decorates it with leaves to confuse predators

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The spider masquerading as BIRD POO: Arachnid weaves white web and decorates it with leaves to confuse predators

Cyclosa ginnaga is silver-coloured and weaves white spirals on its web
The spiders blend in with the faux faeces in the forests of South East Asia
This protects the spiders from predators such as wasps
Decorations added to the spirals are also used to confuse these predators
Scientists from Tunghai University and the Endemic Species Research Institute used computer programmes and ink to make the discovery
By SARAH GRIFFITHS

Spiders disguise themselves as innocuous-looking ladybirds, tree stumps and many more natural objects in order to avoid being eaten. but there is one that mimics something much more disgusting.
The Cyclosa ginnaga decorates its web with a spiral pattern and pieces of dead leaves to make its nest look like bird droppings, in a bid to confuse predators.
Although scientists have known about this practice for some time, researchers have only just discovered the reasons why the spider chooses this particular disguise.

Scientists have identified a spider called Cyclosa ginnaga that disguises itself as bird droppings to evade predators hunting in forests of South East Asia – and even weaves its web in a way that looks like white bird droppings (pictured)
CYCLOSA GINNAGA
Cyclosa Ginnaga is a species of spider found in Taiwan, China, Japan, and South Korea.
Spiders in the genus Cyclosa spin elaborate webs in concentric circles and add debris, such as plant material, prey carcasses and twigs to disguise them from predators, and to sometimes attract dinner.
Cyclosa Ginnaga uses dead leaves and silk to make a white blob on its webs that looks like a bird dropping.
Because it has a silvery body, the spider is well disguised from predators such as wasps.
The disguise is effective as it helps the creature catch food, while evading becoming dinner itself, according to researchers from Tunghai University and the Endemic Species Research Institute in Taiwan.

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It creates a white disc on its web that functions to attract prey, but because the spider has a silver body, this also makes it inconspicuous to predatory wasps.
‘To the human eye, the size, colour and shape of the body against its decoration resemble bird droppings, and it has been hypothesised that these spiders masquerade as bird droppings to avoid predation,’ according to the study published in Scientific Reports.
The scientists showed that the spiders and their web ornaments look almost identical to bird droppings, both in colour and in size, when viewed under conditions that replicate how wasps see them.

The disguise is particularly effective as it helps the creature catch food, while evading becoming dinner itself. Researchers studied how both the spiders and their webs (pictured second and fourth row), as well as bird droppings on leaves (top row and third row) appear to wasps, which eat Cyclosa ginnaga
They collected 10 of the spiders and used a spectrometer to measure the wavelengths of light emitted by the spider’s bodies, their webs and bird droppings against a forest backdrop, Smithsonian reported.
A computer program was used that mimics the sensory eye cells of bees, enabling the team to see whether wasps – which have similar eye to bees – could distinguish between a potential meal and a dropping.
In another experiment, they set up video cameras in front of 12 spider webs and covered some of the spiders’ bodies with black ink and hid web decorations of others, while leaving a handful untouched.
They found that wasp attacks were far greater on spiders that had either their webs or bodies blackened with carbon powder or ink, than those remained sliver and had their webs intact.
‘We provide empirical evidence for the first time that bird dropping masquerading can effectively reduce the predation risk of an organism,’ ecologist I-Min Tso of Tunghai University said.
Other spiders in the genus Cyclosa decorate their webs – sometimes with plant material and the bodies of prey, as well as weaving thick circles. One particular species even makes a decoy spider to baffle predators.

The scientists showed that the spiders and their web ornaments (pictured top) look almost identical to bird droppings (pictured bottom), both in colour and in size, when viewed under conditions that replicate how wasps see them

The spiders create a white disc on its web (pictured) that functions to attract prey, but because the spider has a silver body, this also makes it inconspicuous to predatory wasps
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2646355/The-spider-masquerading-BIRD-POO-Arachnid-weaves-web-white-dropping-avoid-eaten.html#ixzz33WbqRunK

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