this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
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Ants are rarely visual, but I’m also struggling to figure out which predator this is meant to dissuade.
The Wikipedia page on ant mimicry is full of fun facts, but the relevant bits:
But also (not specific to Myrmarachne):
Thats actually wild, they can smell like ants and are convincing enough to pass a physical ant patdown. Crazy.
squeezes your buttcheek yeah they're human, carry on
Consider: the goal isn’t for predators to be fooled, but prey.
Lots of things consider ants totally harmless, like aphids that gets farmed and stuff. Perhaps it’s an adaptation to throw those things off.
Aphids are borderline mindless, their chief strategy is simply breeding more aphids. I’ve gleefully spectated ladybugs devouring dozens of aphids, and not a single one responded in any way. Tiny dead idiots.
You might be on the right track, but I’m still struggling.
Honestly was just the first example I could come up with, but the fact remains that a lot of things do consider ants to be harmless because they aren’t, like, hunting those things. Especially other small arthropods.
I’m sure there are some hunting ant species, but most of them aren’t.
fun fact: aphids are born pregnant (or at least they can be)
Moreover, they can give birth to live young. Live young that are, as you said, pregnant. Pregnant with live, pregnant young. They’re a veritable Russian nesting doll. My loathing for these parthenogenic little fucks cannot be overstated.
Ah, so these spiders look like ants to fool the aphids that ants farm. Similar to how something that looked a lot like a human might fool cows and sheep into following them away to be eaten.
I would guess it's to fool their prey.