According to Friday's The Straits Times, a local English daily, National University of Singapore (NUS) don Li Daiqin and his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) student Matthew Lim have found out that female jumping spiders are aroused when male spiders reflect UV light. Meanwhile, male spiders recognize females when UV light induces fluorescence in them.

    They found that female spiders choose their partners according to the colors and intensity of the UV light that is reflected from the bodies of the males.

    Jumping spiders have UV vision, while the human eye cannot see UV light, which has a wavelength shorter than that of visible light.

    "We have to realize that animals see things differently from us... The way animals are studied should be reassessed," Li was quoted as saying.

    By studying the structure of the UV-reflecting scales of male spiders, the two scientists hope to contribute to the analysis and production of nanomaterials which can reflect UV light.

    Nanomaterials can be used in products such as sunglasses and ski masks.

    Their findings will be published Friday in the latest issue of Science, a top weekly scientific journal, the newspaper's report said.