Dr. Thomas Ings and Professor Lars Chittka from Queen Mary, University of London, are on a mission—scare the crap out of some bees.
In nature, bumblebees and pollinating insects are hunted by crab spiders. These sick bastards lie in wait on flowers, camouflaging themselves, until a bee comes along for them to eat. The research duo sought to discover how a brush with a crab spider would affect the foraging habits of bumblebees.
They tested the situation by setting up robotic crab spiders in varying levels of camo. When an unsuspecting bee landed on a robospider, an optic sensor triggered a little foam claw to snap on the bee and then let it go. Ings and Chittka then used 3D tracking software to monitor the bees’ movements. They found that bees that had been captured were more careful after the incident. The affected bees lost foraging time but also were less likely to land on another spider flower.
Spiders are scary, and robots are scary, so a combination of the two is just horrifying, especially for bumblebees. Wait for robotic crab spiders to displace real crab spiders, and robotic crabs to displace real crabs, and robotic VD clinicians to displace real VD clinicians.

[Telegraph]