#Arachtober 11: in the same plant where I found a bunch of young _Mangora_, I also found this pirate spider (family Mimetidae)! Note the distinctive row of forward-pointing spines on its front legs, which you won't see with similar spiders like _Platnickina_ (family Theridiidae). These are spider-eating spiders who lure their targets out by, as the family name suggests, mimicking prey. More about them: <https://spiderbytes.org/2015/10/26/pirate-spiders/>
I suspect at least a few of the _Mangora_ will fall prey to this specialized hunter.
#ArthroBeauty #DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders #SpiderBehaviour #mimicry • #Araneae #Mimetidae
#DailySpiderPic: a mature male pirate spider (family Mimetidae, compare to _Mimetus puritanus_). I got a nice shot of one of the pedipalps!
They might look like cobweb spiders at first glance, but the very spiky legs are distinctive.
#SpidersOfMastodon #arachnids #spiders #PirateSpiders #Araneae #Mimetidae
A spider (Gelanor siquirres) that hunts other spiders has a unique approach:
"A novel prey capture strategy in pirate spiders (Araneae: Mimetidae)" by Barrantes et al. 2023 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347223001665
"Here we describe the capture web and attack behaviour of the pirate spider Gelanor siquirres. The capture web consists of long, dry silk lines that the spider lays downwards from its retreat to the nearby vegetation, as night falls. These lines serve as substrate for silk lines (floating lines) of other nocturnal spiders that begin web construction during the same period. If an exploring spider attaches its floating line to the silk line of the pirate spider's web, then the exploring spider walks along its line to the pirate spider's line. As the pirate spider perceives the exploring spider on its web, it descends from the retreat and attacks the exploring spider."
neville park
Albert Cardona