Sunday, March 21, 2010

Myrmarachnes - a small collection of images..

My latest find: a long snouted ant mimic

A black ant mimic

A two-tone coloured ant mimic

There's a lot of work to be done on cataloging and capturing the different species of
Myrmarachnes or ant mimic jumping spiders.These strange critters became an object of fascination to me and hunting for them requires
a keen sense of observation.At a single glance, the jumpers would look like any other ants, but when you take a closer
look, you will notice something different about them.The Myrmarachne has four pairs of legs and the tell-tale sign is this: the spider is slower
moving than the ordinary ant and when spooked, it will go underneath a leaf for cover.So far, I have managed to capture at least three different species of the ant mimic jumping
spider.

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