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SGforce@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

Maybe it isn’t just fooling ants?

Don’t know the advantage to fooling everything else but they are convincing. Worked in a warehouse that had a bunch of the red ones one summer. Everybody thought there was an ant problem but they seemed off to me. Firstly, they were never in groups, you’d only find lone ones wandering. Secondly, they walked like ants but held their “antennae” strangely. Lastly, when knocking one off a box I discovered they have a tether thread.

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Gullible@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Ants are rarely visual, but I’m also struggling to figure out which predator this is meant to dissuade.

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- seaplant@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  The Wikipedia page on ant mimicry is full of fun facts, but the relevant bits:
  
  Jumping spiders in the genus Myrmarachne are Batesian mimics
  
  Batesian mimics lack strong defences of their own, and make use of their resemblance to a well-defended model, in this case ants, to avoid being attacked by their predators.
  
  Studies on this genus have revealed that the major selection force is the avoidance of ants by predators such as spider wasps and other larger jumping spiders.
  
  But also (not specific to Myrmarachne):
  
  Ant mimics can be myrmecophilous, with the mimics and their ant models living commensally together. In the case of ants, the mimic is an inquiline in the ants’ nest. Such mimics may in addition be Batesian or aggressive (predator) mimics. To overcome ants’ powerful defences, mimics may imitate ants chemically with ant-like pheromones, visually, or by imitating an ant’s surface microstructure to defeat the ants’ tactile inspections.
  
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  - emeralddawn45@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Thats actually wild, they can smell like ants and are convincing enough to pass a physical ant patdown. Crazy.
    
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    Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    squeezes your buttcheek yeah they’re human, carry on
    
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- SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  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.
  
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  - Gullible@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    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.
    
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    SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    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.
    
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    Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    fun fact: aphids are born pregnant (or at least they can be)
    
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  - pmtriste@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    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.
    
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- blackbrook@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  I would guess it’s to fool their prey.
  
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