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Spidey Senses (mander.xyz)
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[-] SGforce@lemmy.ca 25 points 1 week 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.

[-] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 week ago

Ants are rarely visual, but I’m also struggling to figure out which predator this is meant to dissuade.

[-] SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net 8 points 1 week 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.

[-] pmtriste@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week 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.

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this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
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