Ant Mimics

[Malhavoc's]

I was in a nearby field and was graced by finding a rock with four different ant mimics- of course being wide eyed and dropping the rock upon my foot, I only managed to snatch one.

While I work on identifying it, I found only mixed data on the diet of these creatures, do they predate upon their mimiced ant? or is it merely a guise against predation?

 

[Widowman10]

i *believe* it is mostly a guise to avoid predation. that comment is off the top of my head from what i think i remember. i think i remember watching a video with a neat explanation and seeing the spider cruising around with the ants, the ants investigating and moving on. pretty neat. can't believe you found 4 species under 1 rock. sure it wasn't color forms or sexual dimorphism? that sounds like a lot in such a small area! very cool though

 

[Malhavoc's]

I cant verify it was four different species as I was a bit stunned to find four under a 1 foot rock; I must aconfess I believe it to be sexual dimorphism, as it seems these guys are not only capable of it but also mimic different ants at different sizes. which is fascinating; Jsloan actualy pointed me to a local entomologist at the guelph univ that can identify it for me, so will be looking into that, and collecting more, their movement needless to say is bizzar for a spider, especialy with those " antennas"

 

[flamesbane]

Here's an Ant Mimic I found on my door last summer.

Ant mimics are really cool. From what I understand they mimic ants to avoid predation. Ants taste bad, so looking like an any means they are less likely to get eaten. Pretty similar to the caterpillars that mimic bird droppings.

 

[Malhavoc's]

Mine looks similiar in morphology however colouration is off, mine seems to have chosen the red and black ants to mimic over the brown, being black cephlathorax red midsection black abdomen, I found a possible id last night but am about to run to the store. so will do a little update on my return

However nice update, it did take to the flies, and has decided to cohobatitat with my first feeding attempt of a similiarly coloured ant. fascinating.

 

[Malhavoc's]

Okay so, the closest I've got to identification at this point is Synagelinae - Peckhamia; but this is by no means 100% I am going to see if I can get a camera for you guys to oogle it, however, from what I have read identification on these guys is diffuclt since they come in a large viarity of colours and shapes.

 

[Vespula]

Wow. It's cool that you found so many so close together! They're amazing little spiders!

 

[syndicate]

Ant mimic spiders are very cool!I believe some can even use chemical pheromones to trick ants into believing they are part of the colony.I found a really cool Salticidae ant mimic couple years back.Here's a couple photos

-Chris