Jump to content

Myrmarachne

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Sesamehoneytart (talk | contribs) at 04:42, 19 April 2017. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Myrmarachne
Myrmarachne sp mimicking an ant
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Salticidae
Subfamily: Salticinae
Genus: Myrmarachne
Macleay, 1839[1]
Type species
Myrmarachne melanocephala
MacLeay, 1839[1]
Species

See text.

Diversity
228 species
Synonyms[1]
  • Bizonella Strand, 1929
  • Emertonius Peckham & Peckham, 1892

Myrmarachne is a genus of jumping spiders which imitate an ant by waving their front legs in the air to simulate antennae. Some species also look strikingly like ants. Spiders in this genus are commonly called antmimicking spiders, although there are many other spiders that mimic ants. Panachraesta used to be a synonym until it was removed and made into its own genus[2]

Description

The cephalothorax is elongated, with long chelicerae projecting forward in males. A waist is present on the cephalothorax, and often also on the opisthosoma. Colors vary from black to yellow, depending on the mimicked ant species. One African species was observed to mimick one species when immature, and another as an adult.[3] The genus Bocus is so similar to Myrmarachne as to be indistinguishable without the help of a microscope.[3]

Distribution

Myrmarachne mainly occurs in the tropics from Africa to Australia, with some species found in the New World. A few species, such as the palearctic M. formicaria, occur in temperate regions. With about 80 described and many undescribed southeast Asian species, it is the most diverse genus of jumping spider in this region.[3]

Name

The genus name is a combination of Ancient Greek myrmex "ant" and arachne "spider".

Species

Female M. formosana from Hong Kong

As of December 2015, the World Spider Catalog accepted the following 228 species:[1]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c d "Gen. Myrmarachne MacLeay, 1839", World Spider Catalog, Natural History Museum Bern, retrieved 2015-11-13
  2. ^ Prószyński, J. (2016). Delimitation and description of 19 new genera, a subgenus and a species of Salticidae (Araneae) of the world. Ecologica Montenegrina 7: 4-32.
  3. ^ a b c Murphy & Murphy 2000: 304

References

  • Murphy, Frances & Murphy, John (2000). An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia. Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Nature Society.

Further reading

  • Nelson, X.J., Jackson, R.R., Edwards, G.B. & Barrion, A.T. (2006) "Living with the enemy: jumping spiders that mimic weaver ants". The Journal of Arachnology 33: 813–819. PDF (M. assimilis)