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.
Comment on Spidey Senses
SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net 3 days agoConsider: 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.
pmtriste@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Gullible@sh.itjust.works 3 days 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.
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 2 days ago
fun fact: aphids are born pregnant (or at least they can be)
Gullible@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Moreover, they can give birth to live young. Live young that are, as you said, pregnant. My loathing for these parthenogenic little fucks cannot be overstated.
SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net 3 days 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.