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What puts that sexy twinkle in a spider's eye? A mate aglow.

Take away the ultraviolet portion of light, and what seemed like the arachnid version of Scarlett Johansson or Matthew McConaughey attracts no more lust than plain Jane or dumpy Dan.

Ultraviolet turns out to be important to spiders' mating, researchers report in this week's online edition of Science.

Male and female jumping spiders, Cosmophasis umbratica, have face and leg markings that glow in UV, researchers led by Daiqin Li at the National University of Singapore reported.

Jumping spiders are known to have good eyesight, he said, adding that many of these spiders are colorful, with the males generally more colorful than females. That suggests a role of UV vision in jumping spiders, he said, so the researchers decided to explore the possibility.

"But we discovered UV-induced fluorescence communication in jumping spiders by chance," Li said.

"We were hoping to find out whether jumping spiders could really detect UV and respond to it, as well as whether jumping spiders use UV signals in their communications," Li explained.

The team placed pairs of spiders in a variety of light conditions to determine their reactions to each other. The results:

● Under full-spectrum light, including UV, males and females began courtship rituals.

● Without UV light, females turned away and males paid less attention to the girls.

● When males were placed in UV light and females were not, the females could see the reflection from the males and performed their normal courting behavior. But 16 of 20 males ignored the females, who were not reflecting UV light.