The World of Ant-Mimicry

From my field trip observations, the ant has been one of the most mimicked species, and many really do a good job at the mimicry. Insects mimic ants for the 2 main reasons of defence and predation.

Mimicking Ants for Defence
Ants are typically aggressive, and are known not to taste good to predators of insects, such as birds, and occasionally, wasps. Some insects mimic ants, to avoid being an obvious target to these predators. For certain species, mimicking ants allow them to assimilate themselves into the ant colony so that they would not be attacked by the ants.

Mimicking Ants for Predation
This category largely applies to spiders, as well as some predatory bugs such as the assassin bug. They look like ants, and behave like ants as well. It allows them to get close and hunt ants down.

Here are some examples from my past shoots:

#1 Side profile of an ant-mimic jumping spider. It runs around like an ant, waves it's 2 fore legs like an ant, but jumps at the sigh of prey, and is quick to weave a web as well.

#2 Example of the 2 fore legs waving around to mimic the ant's antenna

#3 Top view, looks like a normal ant from afar. Remember to count the legs and number of eyes. 4 pairs of legs, 4 pairs of eyes!

#4 Example of aggressive mimicry: Ant-mimic Jumping Spider devouring an ant

#5 I'm suspecting that this ant-snatching assassin bug mimics ants by producing chemicals to convince ants that this is one of their kind. This assassin bug is documented in an earlier post: New Tiny Findings at Mandai Track 15.

Today's shoot lasted less than 2 hours. I spent more than half the time trying to lure an Ant Mimic Crab Spider out from the grass, and got rewarded with a heavy downpour! *$#%&$#&%

#6 Top view of the Ant Mimic Crab Spider. The abdomen is uniquely shaped to mimic the ant's head, with 2 black spots to mimic the eyes.

#7 Side view close-up

#8 You're getting this subject at various odd angles because it refused to stand still, I had to take all shots handheld and with random poses

#9 Peering over the leaf

#10 Finally got a clearer look at it's face

#11 Another view of the top. Fake black eyes!

#12 Another side profile shot

#13 Right smack in center. Say hi!

#14 Last shot. I shot this while sitting at the bus stop when it rained. Everyone else was waiting for me while I indulged myself with this little fella. So sorry!

#15 The only other subject in the morning.

The complete album can be viewed here.

The Tiny Boxer Mantis

Encountered my first Boxer Mantis (Otomantis sp.) today! This tiny little fella was less than 1cm in length with the abdomen curled back at an acute angle, sometimes to the extent of touching it's own head!

When I first spotted it, I thought that it was a tiger beetle, as it ran about in little spurts. It was only after peering through the lens that it's identity was confirmed (yes... that small). When it was not doing it's march, it would be practicing it's "punches", alternating between extending either "arms". An absolute delight to observe!

#1 First sighted trudged into the moss on the rocks

#2 The super arched abdomen gives it a somewhat majestic pose

#3 It was also waving it's body to and fro, really restless!

#4 All ready for a punchout

#5 And it begins! Non-stop punching as it looked up at me

#6 For a moment... they really resembled crab claws!

#7 Animation of the 1-2 punching action

#8 And the side jab

#9 Can't get enough of the side view

#10 A shy portrait

#11 Final punch!

Spent a lot of time observing this boxer mantis, so just a few other subjects to share from this trip. :)

#12 A more common praying mantis devouring a prey. Easily over 5 times the length of the boxer mantis.

#13 Beautiful turquoise coloured tiger beetle running on the same row of rocks

The following shots are of the larva (caterpillar) of the Day Flying Moth (Pompelon marginata). Thanks to Horace from Butterfly Circle for the ID. Read on for the interesting defence mechanism of this caterpillar!

#14 The caterpillar is lumpy, about an inch long and of a very smooth and clean cream colour

#15 That's how it looks from above

#16 It got very active after some shooting, and started crawling all over the place, onto the trunk of a tree! Notice the 2 little blobs of liquid at the tip? More info in the next picture...

#17 It didn't stop moving, so I tried giving it a soft blow to simulate some wind, as many insects tend to stop for a while when they experience sudden wind. Immediately after sensing the wind, this cute little fella contracted, and squeezed out little droplets of liquid from each of it's spikes! The little liquid droplets lasted for less than 5 seconds before drying up (or maybe it just got sucked back in) so I only had a single blur record shot of this phenomenon. Still, it was a beautiful yet surprising sight!

Just a side note, that the Day Flying Moth is known to secrete liquids as forms of defence - it would be wise not to assume that the liquid droplets are simply H2O.

The complete album can be viewed here.

The Ogre-Faced Spider

This spider had been on my mind for quite a while as I saw more people posting shots of it. The Net-Casting Spider, or Ogre-Faced Spider (Deinopidae) attained it's name by possessing the very characteristics in the name. Just days before, I was asking another friend where he found it and wanted to visit the spot as well, but changed plans eventually. This night, we found not one, but TWO Net-Casting Spiders. Well, both were identical so you probably can't tell the difference. :P

Net-Casting
The Net-Casting Spider is nocturnal and constructs a net/web suspended by it's four front legs while awaiting for prey. When it detects an approaching prey, it stretches the net and plunges down to capture the prey with the net. Much alike a fisherman?? :)

Ogre-Faced
It's face resembles an ogre. A really ugly ogre!! (not Shrek) It has 2 extremely large anterior (front) eyes that grants it superb night vision to literally net it's prey.

Here's an excellent documentary about the Net-Casting Spider and how it captures it's prey.



And the shots... :)

#1 It normally looks inconspicuous. The Net-Casting Spider looks like yet another orb weaver with long legs to many who are unaware. This was the second one that we found. Lighter tone than the other one in the following photos.

#2 Did a lot of kung fu to get this angle, this spider is perpetually facing down all the time! Here, you can catch a glimpse of the ogre face

#3 Trying to go closer to see the 2 large eyes!

#4 Lowered itself as it sensed our presence

#5 Lookie there! The huge fella tries to run onto the main path

#6 Stopped occasionally and I had a chance to lay my camera on the ground to take this and the following shots

#7 The pedipalps of the net-casting spider are extremely long and curved. The most unique part is... they end with a large black swell. At certain angles, it looked like it had eyes there! From this angle, it looks otherwise.

#8 Favorite shot, shows the curvy pedipalps and huge eyes

#9 View from behind, you can only see 1 pair of eyes from behind

#10 Viewing from an angle

#11 Can't get enough of the ogre face, had to get another head shot!

The second net-casting spider that we spotted was less active. I even used some leaves to mark the spot to return a few hours later, hoping to see the net and some possible action. It didn't happen. :(

Just a few other subjects for the night. Most of the time was spent with the net-casting spider, a big tick in my wish list. lol

#12 Longhorned Beetle - this is my avatar! One of the most handsome longhorned beetles. Flash positioned too far to the front by accident, but the effect wasn't too bad. :P

#13 Used a torch to light up the background for this. There were also several mites behind the neck of this longhorned beetle. :(

#14 Grumpy crab spider, just a record shot

#15 Praying Mantis having a quiet night

Well, hope I can find the net in action next time, but am happy for now.

The complete album can be viewed here.

Conversation between 2 Fungus Weevils

Been wanting to shoot at Venus Drive again and we started to camp at the "Sigma Tree". It was only called the Sigma Tree because one of us had dropped and broke his Sigma 150mm there before. :P

This tree had a decent population of fungus weevils and checkered beetles. They scampered all over the tree trunk and one just to observe hard enough to find the little guys who looked a bit like ultraman. lol

#1 2 Fungus Weevils, would their paths cross?

#2 Private conversation going on when they finally met

#3 And one decided to turn away. Bad breath??

#4 The Fungus Weevils were pretty active and ran in little spurts. I had to put my tripod aside and do hand held shots of these. Gotta love the big eyes!!

#5 Side view. The eyes do remind me of ultraman...

#6 View from the other side

#7 This one had a black patterned back

#8 Perching up for a nice pose!

#9 Hairy little beetle. Could be a Checkered Beetle. Anyone with confirmation?

I had reached before the others did, and managed to capture some shots with morning dew!

#10 2 Treehoppers waiting for the dew to dry

#11 A fungus-ridden ant, now swarmed with morning dew!

#12 Branded Imperial (Eooxylides tharis distanti) getting disturbed by ants. Hope the ID is correct!

#13 Along came a really big weevil

#14 Perched up with a pose

#15 And started doing a weevil dance!

#16 Sagita found this really wrinkled longhorned beetle

#17 It decided to rest it's horns when I went to it's front to take a head shot

#18 Normal landscape view

#19 Closing in for a passport photo!

#20 A thin, reddish weevil with little mites (?) crawling underneath

The complete album can be viewed here.