I thought about using this for my P52 thread, or tossing it in the spider thread, but I'm just so excited about this spider, that I just had to post it as its own thread.
This is an Ant-mimic Jumping Spider (Sarinda hentzi). As you can see, it looks like a brown ant, but it is indeed an ant (count the legs and eyes). This individual one is likely a female, but it is hard to tell as it is definitely a juvenile - it is only 2mm long whereas adults can be 5-7mm long, and the legs are still a bit transparent.
I'm honestly not even sure how I spotted this spider, but as soon as I did, I knew exactly what it was. I've been taking that extra second to count legs on ants for years now, and I was so thrilled to finally see one first hand, so I caught it to bring home and shoot with the MP-E65 at 5x magnification....
5x + cropped showing how they will hold their front two legs up by their head to look like antenna on ants...
5x uncropped...
5x next to a ruler showing the mm scale...
If you're interested, I have more shots of this incredible little critter posted on my blog - http://www.ktuli.com/photography/
Thanks for viewing!
- Bill
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1st August 2012, 02:08 AM #1
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- Bill S
It's an Ant, It's a Spider... It's Both.
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1st August 2012, 02:29 AM #2
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- Frank Miller
Re: It's an Ant, It's a Spider... It's Both.
Fascinating! I learned something new so that makes it a 'good' day for me. Thank you Bill!
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1st August 2012, 03:03 AM #3
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- Paul
Re: It's an Ant, It's a Spider... It's Both.
I am with Frank, nice work Bill and thanks.
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1st August 2012, 11:18 AM #4
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Re: It's an Ant, It's a Spider... It's Both.
We get ant mimic spiders in the UK (Myrmarachne species for example) but they are quite a bit bigger with a body size around 6 mm. But I've yet to find one.
Good shots for a very small live creature. It does look female to me; providing it is an adult.
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1st August 2012, 11:24 AM #5
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- Bill S
Re: It's an Ant, It's a Spider... It's Both.
Frank & Paul: Glad I could teach something new - I think that is a large portion of why I take the macro photos I do, so it is nice to see it working.
Geoff: I think this is a juvenile. The ID book I have says the adults get to be 5-7mm. I definitely feel very fortunate to have found it.
- Bill
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