Readers respond to blue tarantulas
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"Tarantulas evolved a blue hue at least eight times, but scientists aren't yet sure what purpose the coloration serves, Susan Milius wrote in "Tarantula blue Is no accident" (SN: 1/9/16, p. 4). In the article, spider researcher Bor-Kai Hsiung wonders If, for example, the blue might scare away predators or attract insects. More than one reader wanted to know whether tarantulas are diurnal, a clue that might help researchers narrow in on the significance of the coloration. In a paper reporting their findings, Hsiung and his colleagues wrote that tarantulas are "largely nocturnal ambush predators that reside in burrows," further deepening the puzzle of how color could be helpful, says Milius.
Ann Ony Mus compared the puzzle of tarantula blue to the more famous conundrum of whether scorpions get any benefit from glowing under ultraviolet light. That trait, though widespread among scorpions, is often dismissed as having no function of its own, but instead being a side effect of some other trait. There is, as she said, "No apparent advantage to it that we can discern at this time."
Hsiung and colleagues argue against dismissing tarantula blue as a useless side effect. A satisfying dismissal, they say, would have to explain how the different structures in hairs in different tarantula species, which appear to have independent origins, converged on rather similar shades of blue."
---- This article was published before this crowdfunding project, based on our original research that started the development of bio-inspired tarantula colorants. And I only find out about it today.
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