Amyciaea albomaculata
Over at Compound Eye I’ve posted photos of a remarkable Australian ant-mimic spider:
Amyciaea albomaculata ant-mimic spider
Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
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A personal weblog by Illinois-based biologist and photographer Alex Wild.
Myrmecos- derived from the ancient greek word for "ant"- hosts Alex's musings about these and other little creatures that share our planet.
Questions? Comments? Email alwild [at] myrmecos.net
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Blog: Myrmecos Topics:Insects, Photography, Science
OMG SO COOL!
THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT I SAID WHEN I FIRST SAW THE SPIDERS!!!
Wow. That’s amazing. Do weaver ants perceive things more visually than chemically? Is the mimicry to fool the ants or to fool other things?
Thanks for your comment, Troy. In the case of this particular spider, I feel fairly comfortable with the claim that it’s fooling the ants rather than, say, birds. This spider doesn’t look all that much like an ant until you’re seeing it from down at an ants-eye level.
Beautiful series! I loved the air bubble the most.
That spider is dangerously cute, perhaps even to the ants!
OK Alex when you were at our place you found things I never seen before yet I walked pass them hundred times. Like the feral bees.
A stunning series of shots, it tells the entire, chilling story. I wonder if the spider has glands on its opisthosoma that produces signals that say “don’t bother me now” to ants that approach the spider from behind as it is feeding on another member of the colony.