A small, slender ant mimic, sometimes entirely dark brown to black, but mostly with a red or orange mid-section, imitating Opisthopsis 'strobe ants', found in rainforest and fringes on the North Queensland coast and around Darwin, Northern Territory. In particular this species appears to imitate Opisthopsis haddoni Emery, 1893. The male has elongated chelicerae two-thirds to nearly equal the length of the carapace, with a pronounced downward slope from the outside to the inside dorsal edges. Legs are uniformly slender, the male's femurs slightly enlarged femurs. The rear of the abdomen is always black, with two lateral notches of white hairs about a third the way from the front end, emphasising the imitation of an ant's gaster. In the two-coloured forms the female only has the front half of the abdomen orange or red, while the two-coloured male has an orange-red carapace, except for the anterior tips of the chelicerae and the immediate eye surrounds, which are dark. Sometimes the male's chelicerae are dark even in two-coloured forms, this character probably varying with maturity. In both males and females the cephalothorax appears to be in two physical sections, because of an abrupt step down from the carapace to the somewhat bulbous rear part. ♀5mm ♂ 4.5mm
- Female, from Ingham AUS-1017
- Male, black and orange, from Townsville AUS-1023
- Male, black and orange, from Townsville AUS-1023
- Male, dark form from Ingham AUS-1728
- Male, dark form from Ingham AUS-1730
- References
Female, from Ingham AUS-1017
Male, black and orange, from Townsville AUS-1023
Male, black and orange, from Townsville AUS-1023
Male, dark form from Ingham AUS-1728
Male, dark form from Ingham AUS-1730
References
Cecarelli, 2010 New species of ant-mimicking jumping spiders of the genus Myrmarachne MacLeay, 1839 (Araneae: Salticidae) from north Queensland, F Sara Ceccarelli, School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld 4811, Australia.Australian Journal of Entomology (2010) 49, 245-255
Ceccarelli, 2009 Ant-mimicking spider, Myrmarachne species (Araneae : Salticidae), distinguishes its model, the green ant, Oecophylla smaragdina, from a sympatric Batesian O. smaragdina mimic, Riptortus serripes (Hemiptera : Alydidae) Fadia Sara Ceccarelli School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld 4811, Australia.CSIRO PUBLISHING www.publish.csiro.au/journals/ajz Australian Journal of Zoology, 2009, 57, 305-309
Ceccarelli, 2008 Behavioral mimicry in Myrmarachne species (Araneae, Salticidae) from North Queensland, Australia Fadia Sara Ceccarelli: School of Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Queensland, Australia. 2008. The Journal of Arachnology 36:344-351