Ant mimicry

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Top: An ant in Mozambique
Bottom: An ant-mimicking spider, Myrmarachne

Ant mimicry or myrmecomorphy is

predators that rely on vision to identify their prey, such as birds and wasps, normally avoid them, because they are either unpalatable or aggressive. Some arthropods mimic ants to escape predation (Batesian mimicry), while some predators of ants, especially spiders, mimic them anatomically and behaviourally in aggressive mimicry. Ant mimicry has existed almost as long as ants themselves; the earliest ant mimics in the fossil record appear in the mid-Cretaceous
alongside the earliest ants.

In myrmecophily, mimic and model live commensally together; in the case of ants, the mimic is an inquiline in the ants' nest. Such mimics may in addition be Batesian or aggressive mimics. To overcome ants' powerful defences, mimics may imitate ants chemically with ant-like pheromones, visually, or by imitating an ant's surface microstructure to defeat the ants' tactile inspections.

Types

Batesian mimicry

Thick waist of the Mirid ant bug, Myrmecoris gracilis is camouflaged with white markings.[1]

model, in this case ants, to avoid being attacked by their predators. A special case is where the predator is itself an ant, so that only two species are involved.[2][3] The mimicry can be extremely close: for instance, Dipteran flies in the genus Syringogaster, "strikingly" resemble Pseudomyrmex and are hard even for experts to distinguish "until they take flight".[4] Insects that do not share the narrow-waisted body plan of ants are sometimes elaborately camouflaged to improve their resemblance. For example, the thick waist of the Mirid ant bug Myrmecoris gracilis has white markings at the front of its abdomen and the back of its thorax, making it look ant-waisted.[1]

Over 300 spider species mimic the social behaviours, morphological features and predatory behaviour of ants. Many genera of jumping spiders (Salticidae) mimic ants.[5] Jumping spiders in the genus Myrmarachne are Batesian mimics which resemble the morphological and behavioural properties of ants to near perfection. These spiders mimic the behavioural features of ants such as adopting their zig-zag locomotion pattern.[6] Further, they create an antennal illusion by waving their first or second pair of legs in the air. The slender bodies of these spiders make them more agile, allowing them to easily escape from predators. Studies on this genus have revealed that the major selection force is the avoidance of ants by predators such as spider wasps and other larger jumping spiders.[7][8][9] Ant mimicry has a cost, given the body plan of spiders: the body of spider myrmecomorphs is much narrower than non-mimics, reducing the number of eggs per eggsac, compared to non-mimetic spiders of similar size. They seem to compensate by laying more eggsacs over their lifetimes.[8] A study of three species of mantises suggested that they innately avoided ants as prey, and that this aversion extends to ant-mimicking jumping spiders.[10]

Batesian mimicry of ants appears to have evolved even in certain plants, as a visual anti-herbivory strategy.[11] Passiflora flowers of at least 22 species, such as P. incarnata, have dark dots and stripes on their flowers for this purpose.[12]

  • It has been suggested that the elongated spots on the reproductive organs of Passiflora incarnata and related species are ant-mimicking to deter herbivores.[12]
    It has been suggested that the elongated spots on the reproductive organs of Passiflora incarnata and related species are ant-mimicking to deter herbivores.[12]

Myrmecophily

Further information: Myrmecophily
The cricket Myrmecophilus acervorum is a myrmecophile, resembling its ant hosts by touch, or perhaps by pheromones, but not visually.

Some arthropods are

convergently evolved similar features. They are not necessarily visual mimics of ants.[13] The mimicry allows them to live unharmed within ant nests, some beetles even marching with the aggressive Eciton burchellii army ants.[14] The Jesuit priest Erich Wasmann, who discovered ant mimicry, listed 1,177 myrmecophiles in 1894; many more such species have been discovered since then.[14]

The cricket

Wasmannian mimicry, where the mimic lives alongside the model, be redefined to permit any such combination, making it essentially a synonym for myrmecophily.[16]

Mites are among the most speciose mimics of ants, and can occur in large numbers in an ant colony. A single colony of Eciton burchellii army ants may contain some 20,000 inquiline mites.[14] The phoretic mite Planodiscus (Uropodidae) attaches itself to the tibia of its host ant, Eciton hamatum. The cuticular sculpturing of the mite's body as seen under the electron microscope strongly resembles the sculpturing of the ant's leg, as do the arrangements and number of the bristles (setae). Presumably, the effect is that when the ant grooms its leg, the tactile sensation is as it would be in mite-free grooming.[16]

The snail Allopeas myrmekophilos lives in army ant colonies.[17]

Lycaenid butterflies

Further information: Lycaenidae and Phengaris rebeli
Pupae of the lycaenid butterfly Phengaris rebeli in ant nest

Some 75% of

worker ants give the same preference to the lycaenids as they do to their own brood, demonstrating that chemical signals produced by the mimic are indistinguishable to the ant. Larvae of the mountain Alcon blue, Phengaris rebeli, similarly mimic Myrmica ants and feed on their brood.[21]

Parasitoid wasps

The parasitoid wasp

cuticular hydrocarbons.[22][23] When threatened it releases a toxic chemical similar to the ant's alarm pheromone. This multi-trait mimicry serves to protect G. agilis both from ants and (in Batesian mimicry) from ground predators such as wolf spiders.[24][22]

Aggressive mimicry

Further information: Aggressive mimicry

spider-hunting wasps.[26]

  • Aggressive mimicry of ants by spiders. The ant is both the model and the dupe, and it becomes the spider's prey.
    Aggressive mimicry of ants by spiders. The ant is both the model and the dupe, and it becomes the spider's prey.
  • Model: Red weaver ant, Oecophylla smaragdina
    Model: Red weaver ant,
    Oecophylla smaragdina
  • Mimic: Female Myrmarachne plataleoides resembles worker red weaver ant.
    Mimic: Female
    Myrmarachne plataleoides
     resembles worker red weaver ant.
  • Mimic: Male M. plataleoides resembles one red weaver ant worker carrying another.
    Mimic: Male M. plataleoides resembles one red weaver ant worker carrying another.

Special protection for young insects

Multiple groups of insects have evolved ant mimicry for their young, while their adults are protected in different ways, either being

warning coloration.[2][27]

The young instars of some mantids, such as Odontomantis pulchra[28] and Tarachodes afzelii are Batesian mimics of ants. Bigger instars and adults of these mantids are not ant mimics, but are well-camouflaged predators, and in the case of Tarachodes, that eat ants.[29]

Young

nocturnal, while the adult has bright warning coloration.[2]

The phasmid Extatosoma tiaratum, resembling dried thorny leaves as an adult, hatches from the egg as a replica of a Leptomyrmex ant, with a red head and black body. The long end is curled to make the body shape appear ant-like, and the movement is erratic, while the adults move differently, if at all. In some species the eggs resemble ant-dispersed (myrmecochoric) plant seeds, complete with a mimic oil body (a "capitulum"). These eggs are collected by the ants, deceived in a different way, and taken to their nests. The capitulum is removed and eaten, leaving the eggs viable.[27]

Taxonomic range

Ant mimicry has a wide taxonomic range, including some 2000

staphylinid rove beetles. Outside the arthropods, ant mimics include snails, snakes, and flowering plants.[14][13]

Eukaryotes

References

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    Lund) that often occur on the same leaf surfaces. They resemble ants in movement, size and shape (with the latter similarity enhanced by wing pigmentation), and can be difficult to distinguish from ants until they take flight.
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  12. ^ a b c Lev-Yadun, Simcha (2009). "Ant mimicry by Passiflora Flowers?". Israel Journal of Entomology. 39: 159–163.
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  15. ^ Osservazioni sopra la Blarta acervorum di panzee. Gryllus Myrmocophilus nob. Memoria (inedita) del dott. Paolo Savi, con tavola in rame, Biblioteca Italiana ossia Giornale di letteratura scienze ed arti (1819), Volume 15, Fascicolo
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  23. ^ Lorenzi, C.; Bagnères, A. G.; Clement, J. L. (1996). "The role of cuticular hydrocarbons in social insects: is it the same in paper-wasps". In Turillazzi, S.; West-Eberhard, M.J. (eds.). Natural History and Evolution of Paper Wasps. Oxford University Press. pp. 178–189.
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External links
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