Termites are not ant mimics. Although they have a similar social structure, they are taxonomically closer to cockroaches than ants (bees and wasps). They do not live in ant nests. FYI!
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Oh, do ant-mimics need to live in ant nests? I did not realize that. Iād assumed the term meant animals that look surprisingly similar to ants.
Although I was amazed to read about about so many other animals interact and live so closely with ants.
This is quite an interesting topic to read.
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there are lots of interesting things about arthropods ā really, all organisms are interesting in lots of different ways ā but i think one of the most interesting things is their relationship with Wolbachia bacteria. hereās just one article about this which may be interesting: Frontiers | Wolbachia Associations with Insects: Winning or Losing Against a Master Manipulator | Ecology and Evolution (frontiersin.org).
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Here is another fascinating subject affecting arthopods, Camouflage and Mimicry. My particular ānicheā are moths, so my first encounter with the wonderfully perplexing subject of camouflage and mimicry was the adaptation of the Peppered Moth to pollution during the industrial revolution. The melanic form of the moth did not present itself until 1811 and the frequency of the dark form increased as pollution increased, the lighter form increased in cleaner environment. A wonderful argument for Darwinās theory of evolutionary adaptation and a fascinating topic. There are many fascinating forms of moths that mimic, as well - Datanas that mimic a curled leaf, eye-spots, and moths that mimic wasps.
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Some ant-mimics live in ant nests, but not all (probably not most), and not all myrmecophilous insects that live in ant nests are mimics!
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Genus Argiope, the āwriting spidersā, are some interesting spiders; they got their name from putting zigzag markings on their webs with a different type of silk; the purpose hasnāt been confirmed, but it makes the web more visible to large animals that might otherwise accidentally destroy it, and less visible to insect prey (except praying mantises, who oddly enough CAN see the webs and use them to hunt the spiders.)
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Neat! Iāve never thought about the evolutionary benefits of adding more visible aspects to the web. This does remind me of the trashline orbweavers (https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/127360-Cyclosa) who often make lines of debris in their webs.
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Pseudoscorpions get around by āridingā on other animals, typically insects, by clinging to them with their pincers.
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Awesome! There is even an ant-mimic mantis out there!
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One of the most interesting things about arthropods is how many classes there are. Crustaceans, insects, arachnids, chilopods (centipedes), diplopods (millipedes); but also pantopods (sea spiders, possibly a sister clade to all other arthropods), pauropods (sister clade to millipedes), symphylans (look like centipedes, but not closely related), and trilobites. More classes of arthropods than there are of vertebrates.
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The Mutillidae are a family of more than 7,000 species of wasps whose wingless females resemble large, hairy ants . Their common name velvet ant refers to their dense pile of hair, which most often is bright scarlet or orange, but may also be black, white, silver, or gold.
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There are several extremely bizarre parasitic crustaceans, which bear almost no resemblance to what youād recognize as a crustacean. Rhizocephalans have a crustacean-type larva but then inject a sort of clump of cells into the host, which grows into a branched, filamentous internal parasite. Pentastomids are basically worms, without even a crustacean larva, and can infect people.
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i wonder if a Rhizocephalan infection would improve or detract from the taste of crab, lobster, shrimp, etc.? maybe you wouldnāt even notice a difference, since barnacles sort of taste like lobsterā¦
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From the Wikipedia article on sea spiders:
āThe number of walking legs is usually eight (four pairs), but species with five and six pairs exist. Pycnogonids do not require a traditional respiratory system. Instead, gasses are absorbed by the legs and transferred through the body by diffusion.ā
And then it gets really creepy, as the larvae are only a head with its appendages; the body and legs grow later.
Termites
are taxonomically closer to cockroaches than antsā¦
ā¦ to be more precise: they ARE actually social roaches, not just relatives
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Thank you for that. I knew they were close. I really donāt know them, apart from the social perspective (I did a course many decades ago on Social Insects), so didnāt feel qualified to be so definitive!
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I donāt know if ant mimics need to live in ant nests. If I speculate, there is no really an advantage for them - I donāt think ants are āfearedā the same way that bees/wasps are. There are very many fly species which are bee mimics, but do not live in hives. Some predators are aware that bees/wasps are disagreeable to eat, so avoid them. What I find so remarkable about ant mimics that live inside the colony is that they have some way of disguising their pheromone signatures so they can eat ants (in some form).
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