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Project Noah Nature School
Myrmarachne plataleoides
This species of spider mimics the Weaver Ants.This is a male and it mimics a weaver ant carrying a worker.The spiders live in trees and bushes where the weaver ants live in colonies. By mimicking the ants they are able to stay close to them and gain protection from predators. Since weaver ants have a painful bite and also taste bad, this strategy appears to be successful. Though these spiders mimic the weaver ants very well they are known to stay away from them. They weave a thin web on leaves, hide under their webbing and ambush their prey. The Kerengga Ant-like Jumper also mimics ant-like behaviour by the style of locomotion and by the way they wave their front legs like antennae to mimic the ants. These jumping-spiders jump only when their safety is threatened.
Spotted on Jun 20, 2012
Submitted on Jun 28, 2012
47 Comments (1–25)
The other leg you may have saw Alexchc11 is the pedepalp. It is not a leg.
Fantastic spotting !!
That has 9 legs instead of 8! Cool!
Congratulations Atul :)
Woow nice species. good job... my SOD !
Thanks Oneng, Jolly, Harsha ,Uday and Leana.
Congratulation..Atul..great pic..
Congratulations Atul. Very beautiful jumper.
Congratulations. :)
congrats atul!
Congratulations Atul!
wow thank you so much everyone...this is indeed an honor
and will always share such spottings documenting India's biodiversity here with this wonderful community.
thanks again Yasser!
Congratulations Atul for the SOTD!
Congratulations Atul !!!
A truly a well deserved SOTD Atul - even if you needed to glue two ants together to make it. Good job.
Lovely honor for the Organism and for your efforts Atul... Congratulations...!!
Congrats Atul! Very nice shot of a male ant-mimic! You can check out the pic of a female mimic together with a real weaver ant here: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/751...
And also a portrait of the male here: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/751...
Awesome! Congratulations!
Congrats for the SOTD Atul..! Superb spotting..:-)
Oh, wow - this is a super cool spotting, Atul! Congratulations!
Fantastic spotting, and ever better Ecology! Thank you for sharing this, Atul!
Abhinandan 'PANCHMAHAMANI' Atul sir!!!!
Congratulations, Atul, for the SOTD.
सुस्वरुप!!
I,ll say 'break a thousand lenses and shoot one of this'. Amazing!