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Project Noah Nature School
Phiale formosa (Female)
This spider is endemic to Costa Rica, it mimics a wasp while the male mimics an ant.
Tropical rainforest
http://researchmatters.asu.edu/stories/s... On a paper by Lisa Taylor (Arizona State University) she says that this spider "is presumably mimicking a wasp, or velvet ant. Velvet ants are actually wingless wasps with a painful sting so mimicking them gives the spider protection from predators, who stay away. Interestingly, the male of this species is also a mimic, but has a striking black and white pattern that probably mimics a different species of velvet ant."
I just read the link! great paper!! highly recommended to anyone viewing this spotting!
Yes it looks the same as the one I found. Thanks.
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/562....
Thanks for the ID.
JanineLingTurner gave me a great link which you might be interested in...
... http://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/mmg_disp.jsp...
hey Diaz José Miguel ..lovely spotting
consider adding it to the jumping spiders mission
http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/1916...
No problem! The information about it is fairly sparse in the major online catalogs. It's a good chance to upload your pictures to the databases.
On a technical note: The species names don't receive a capital letter by convention. So "Phiale Formosa" should be "Phiale formosa".
Thanks! Nathan! wow today was a very lucky day for me as I found two awesome species of tropical animals (the other oneis a beautiful and hard to find butterfly)! thanks for the ID. You should suggest it above, that way I can give you your well deserved +1!
Jumping Spider Mimic
Genus: Phiale although not sure of the species. Looks very similar to Phiale formosa female.
Spotted on Nov 12, 2013
Submitted on Nov 12, 2013
