HONG KONG - Lighting levels don't only affect human mating behavior -- scientists in Singapore have found certain types of light can make jumping spiders attractive to the opposite sex.

A spider weaves its web in a file photo. Lighting levels don't only affect human mating behavior -- scientists in Singapore have found certain types of light can make jumping spiders attractive to the opposite sex. [Reuters]

Writing in this week's issue of Science, the researchers said that when bathed in ultraviolet light, different parts of male and female jumping spiders glowed, making them appear sexually attractive.

"Males readily courted females by adopting a courtship posture comprising a flexed-up abdomen, arched legs and extended vibrating palps (an area near the mouth); females responded either with displays comprising hunched legs and bent abdomen or by briefly running away," they wrote in their article.

Once the light was turned off, the creatures -- known as Cosmophasis umbratica -- largely ignored one another.

"Without their partner in UV light, females showed no interest. When the females were not in UV light, the males ignored the females or responded with less interest," they wrote.