Spider mimics ant to eat spiders and avoid being eaten by spiders [Not Exactly Rocket Science]
It’s been just three weeks since I last wrote about the dark-footed ant-spider Myrmarachne melanotarsa , but this is one species that just keeps getting more and more interesting. To quickly recap, M.melanotarsa is a jumping spider that protects itself from predators (like other jumping spiders) by resembling an ant. Earlier this month, Ximena Nelson and Robert Jackson showed that they bolster this illusion by living in silken apartment complexes and travelling in groups, mimicking not just the bodies of ants but their social lives too. Now Nelson and Robert are back with another side to the ant-spider’s tale – it also uses its impersonation for attack as well as defence. It also feasts on the eggs and youngsters of the very same spiders that its ant-like form protects it from. It is, essentially, a spider that looks like an ant to avoid being eaten by spiders so that it itself can eat spiders. Its actively raids the silken nests of other spiders and snatches the eggs and hatchlings within. These youngsters would be safe from any normal ant but being a spider in ant’s clothing, M.melanotarsa has no problem with moving through silk. But they still have to get past the parents. Read the rest of this post… | Read the comments on this post…
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Spider mimics ant to eat spiders and avoid being eaten by spiders [Not Exactly Rocket Science]
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