Spiders are usually meals for reptiles and amphibians, but in a startliпg role reversal, these arachnids make dinner out of their potential predators.

With a body measuring just one inch long, the regal jumping spider might not seem like much of a threat.

But, researchers have discovered that these tiny creatures can take down frogs and lizards up to three times their own size, allowing them to devour the vertebrates that would potentially prey on them otherwise.

A new study documents several observations of this bizarre behavior for the first time, and the experts now suspect it gives these small arachnids a survival advantage.

Nyffeler discovered and searched the Internet for reports and photos of this odd phenomenon, finding a total of eight instances in seven Florida counties.

Another example came from Jeff Hollenbeck, an amateur spider scholar who photographed a female regal swallowing a Carolina anole in Marion County.

Researchers reckon the anole—a speedy spider-eating lizard—was up to two-and-a-half times longer than its pursuer, but it was no match for the spider’s venom and the large, spine-like structures on its front legs.

‘Many frog and lizard species are known to include spiders in their diets,’ study co-author Martin Nyffeler, a conservation biologist at Switzerland’s University of Basel, told National Geographic.

‘I’m very impressed that there is a jumping spider species capable eating small frogs and lizards.’