Weird Spiders Ants
It is this brief statement is best suited for the description of mimicry - a type of protective coloration and form, through which the animal blends with the surrounding habitat.
Some of the professionals of this case are the kinds of spiders, horses Myrmarachne, which means "ant-spider." These spiders have taken over from the ants not only appearance, but also behavior. Rhode Myrmarachne quite large and includes about 200 species.
Why ants are asking you? It's simple. First of all, these insects are their main food source. Second, many birds and wasps prefer not to deal with these small but highly aggressive insects. After all, their bites are not as painful as it may seem. And, thirdly, in this guise they are guaranteed a well furnished accommodation within the walls of the nest. Not life, but a fairy tale.
The main resemblance to ants is achieved by shape and color of the body. Where necessary, spiders have color banners, coinciding with the position of "waist" in ants. Stained twins also very diverse and depends on the type of ants, under which they adjust. But recall that the ants are visually impaired, so when they are dealing increasingly rely on their sense of smell and touch. In this connection, spiders have learned to adjust to them, and in chemical terms.
The most important distinction of all the arachnids of ants is the number of legs: spiders are 4 pairs of ants - only 3. And what to do with one extra pair? To retrain her psevdousiki. Spiders in the course of evolution to get used to run 3 pairs of legs, and the first pair is used as a scape-palpi. They even learned how to move them appropriately. Reincarnation is the finishing touch their fussy gait.
With all these ants do not notice the substitution and quietly admit to his nest of this "Trojan horse". And he lived happily ever after himself and does not know sorrow. The main thing - do not pretend to. After all, suspecting fraud, the ants quickly finished with an uninvited guest. In the event of an attack on an anthill spider drops her "mask" and quickly rushes to their heels.
Very cautious even manage to create spiders in ant's own family. Eggs are laid in the same place, picking up this nook, and built a nest out of spider webs.
Externally, the females of these spiders are more like worker ants, and other species. Depending on the type of male spiders horses may look like ants as soldiers (with large and with large mandibles) and the worker the worker carrying a load (due to the large chelicerae).
The last similarity does not always work at hand. Because many predatory spiders that feed on ants, make them easy prey for - ant-slogger, burdened with a heavy load. This means that soon he can not escape.
In general we can say that these spiders are an excellent object for the study of this remarkable phenomenon as animal mimicry.
