MMPs re-gift sight to zebrafish

Spiders have their own suite of adaptations to avoid predators. They can run fast, jump high and even selfamputate their own legs to escape, and some species do something even cleverer: they disguise themselves as ants. They wave their forelegs around like antennae and even their thin, tapered bodies are shaped like those of ants. It has the desired effect; most predators mistake them for ants and leave them alone. Some of these myrmecomorphs – ant-mimics – even move like ants. Spiders run in a stop–start fashion, turning on the spot, whereas ants typically move continuously, changing direction while walking. Yet the degree of similarity between the movements of these spiders and the ants that they mimic remained untested until Ximena Nelson and Ashley Card, from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, decided to investigate.