• Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      11·
      2 days ago

      imagine if a species of lemur evolved to broadly look like us, but still with lemur faces and stuff

      that’s basically what’s happening for ants, terrifying

  • Zerush@lemmy.mlEnglish
    14·
    3 days ago

    I saw in a documental a snake which fools ants, but not to eat these, but to use these as bait for fooling lizards, which are the real prey for the snake.

    • The snake buried itself in the sand, leaving only the tail point, imitating a tan of grass
    • This attracts the ant
    • This in turn attracts the lizard who wants to eat the ant
    • End of the lizard

    Evolution games

    Jumping spiders are anywayvery smart for catching their prey, even without the need to disguise their aspect, analyzing the situation and adjust their strategy.

  • Sculptus Poe@lemmy.worldEnglish
    101·
    3 days ago

    Are ants so visual? I guess so, or there wouldn’t be enough advantage for these guys to develop. I thought they went purely by sensing pheromones.

    • SGforce@lemmy.caEnglish
      23·
      3 days 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.

        • seaplant@slrpnk.netEnglish
          8·
          3 days 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.

        • SolarMonkey@slrpnk.netEnglish
          8·
          3 days 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.

          • [email protected]@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            7·
            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.

              • [email protected]@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                2·
                2 days ago

                Moreover, they can give birth to live young. Live young that are, as you said, pregnant. Pregnant with live, pregnant young. They’re a veritable Russian nesting doll. My loathing for these parthenogenic little fucks cannot be overstated.

            • SolarMonkey@slrpnk.netEnglish
              3·
              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 (like the 200 army ant species), but most of them aren’t.

          • pmtriste@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            3 days 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.

    • fox [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      7·
      3 days ago

      It’s more that the lobster plan (long body) is really quite good in many niches, but the crab plan (wide body, no exposed tail) works better in more productive ecosystems that have more predators. So anything lobster shaped coming up from the deep mud will have to reduce its tail or get sniped by a fish

    • Ephera@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      3 days ago

      Proper ants only have 6 legs, though. But yeah, these spiders-turned-to-ants would have 8 legs.

      Well, and crabs technically have 10 legs, with their foremost pair typically equipped with pincers. 🙃

      • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        i’m sure there’s at least one ant-mimicking spider that has turned their front legs into extra quasi-pedipalps to blend in better, getting rid of limbs is super easy in evolution (that’s where antennae and the existing pedipalps come from, and spinnerets too i presume)

  • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    11·
    2 days ago

    Plot Twist All actual ant species are derived from antcestor that was simply mimicking another species, and so thus all ants are total frauds.

    Good thing I don’t come from an evolutionary branch like that!

  • Evil_Shrubbery@lemmy.zipEnglish
    2·
    3 days ago

    Great info, even the funny they-don’t-jump part, def looks like they don’t have the jumping hydraulics >!(but I’m always sad to see dead spiders)!<.