January 30, 2012

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An Enemy in the Ranks

By Alex Wild

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

Imagine, for a moment, the horror if we humans were stalked by a common predator that hid itself in the open by looking...just like us. A humanoid patrolling the streets like a bloodthirsty mannequin, picking off pedestrians that venture too close. Fortunately for us, this sobering thought is only a grim fantasy.

Australian weaver ants, however, routinely face just such a nightmare predator. Several species, in fact. Weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) contend with a number of ant-like spiders that look similar enough to their favored food to avoid detection by the ant guards. They lurk around the ants' trails, pretending to be ants and grabbing a meal when the opportunity arises.

During my recent travels in tropical Australia I spent a morning observing an ant-mimic crab spider Amyciaea albomaculata. The following photo essay shows the spider at work.

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See also Aphantochilus rogeri, a New World crab spider that attacks turtle ants:

The Ant That Wasn't

Alex Wild is Curator of Entomology at the University of Texas at Austin, where he studies the evolutionary history of ants. In 2003 he founded a photography business as an aesthetic complement to his scientific work, and his natural history photographs appear in numerous museums, books and media outlets.

More by Alex Wild

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