Maybe you’ve seen your best action hero do this in the movies: holding his breath underwater while the enemy passes by with a deadly weapon until coming up gasping for air.

Out in the real world, it seems a dangerous move, but now a scientist from Binghamton University has unveiled the mystery of a tropical spider’s bizarre antics that take this survival technique a step further.

Lindsey Swierk, a professor of biological sciences, has discovered that a tropical spider species uses a “film” of air to hide underwater from predators for as long as 30 minutes...