Little Monsters - Part 18: Evil Doppelgangers - The Ant Mimic Spider!

Ever noticed someone that was alone, a bit bigger, a touch longer, walked a bit different than the others?

And then they injected you with venom and ate you?

Such is the fate of many ants, which meet an ant mimic spider such as Myrmarachne formicaria.

These jumping spiders mimic the shape and behaviour of ants, their prefered prey, holding the first pair of legs aloft and waving them in a manner that imitates the antenae of ants. Literal wolves in sheep's clothing.

A spiders body is divided into two parts the head, with legs attached and the abdomen; to mimic the ants three part body plan (head, thorax, abdomen) the spider has a section of white between the first pair of legs and the second, creating the illusion of a separate head section.

Though quite difficult to see in the above picture, the first pair of legs are held under and behind the fangs.
Just the elbow of the left foreleg can be seen.

One thing that is easy to distinguish about this species is the sex of the spider. The males have ridiculously long fangs!

It could be selective pressure from females prefering the male spiders with longer fangs or from competition between the males using them to fight each other for territory. I have seen a different jumping spider species use their first pair of legs to size each other up and make threat displays before attacking each other.

I was able to get great photos of that wire/post thing behind these sparring spiders! :-/
Though I do count myself as very lucky to have witnessed their quarrel!

They do share the amazing eyes of all the jumping spiders!

The blue sky tinted the reflection to look a bit like she is wearing sun glasses:

The iridescence on the palps is quite nice too.
Interestingly these palps resemble the mandibles of ants. The completeness of the disquise is astonishing!

Such a cool and collected expression, ready for anything!

They are genrally quite active and very aware of their surroundings. I have been fortunate to find them on a white guard rail near my house where taking photographs was relatively easy. They also patrol the roses and the outside walls of the house but have many more places to hide there!

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Also, if you like macro photography, check out some of the earlier posts in this series.

Little Monsters - Part I: Wolf Spiders
Little Monsters - Part II: Golden Orb Weaver
Little Monsters - Part III: Lynx Spiders!
Little Monsters - Part IV: Decorator Orb Weaver
Little Monsters - Part V: Black Back Paper Wasp
Little Monsters - Part VI: Dragonfly
Little Monsters - Part VII: Indian Fritallary
Little Monsters - Part VIII: Giant Japanese Hornet
Little Monsters - Part IX: Praying Mantis!
Little Monsters - Part X: Harlequin Ladybird!
Little Monsters - Part XI: Dragons!
Little Monsters - Part XII: Snails!
Little Monsters - Part XIII: Evil Weevils!
Little Monsters - Part XIV: Fantastic Phasmids!
Little Monsters - Part XV: To Bee or not to Bee?
Little Monsters - Part 16: Jumping Spiders!
Little Monsters - Part 17: Hawkmoth Caterpillars and Hawkmoths

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