Myrmecotypus

Myrmecotypus
M. rettenmeyeri
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Suborder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Corinnidae
Genus:	Myrmecotypus O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1894
Species
See text.
Diversity
8 species

Myrmecotypus is a spider genus that mimics ants. All species occur from Panama to Mexico, with one species found in the USA.

Camponotus sericeiventris

M. rettenmeyeri has a strange longitudinal band of black hairs extending along the midline of the cephalothorax. This seems to enhance the resemblance to the ant Camponotus sericeiventris with which it shares the same habitat. The crests of black hairs correspond to the solid longitudinal keel-like dorsal extensions of the posterior sections of the ant's thorax.

M. rettenmeyeri is named after entomologist Carl W. Rettenmeyer, who researched ants.

Species

• Myrmecotypus fuliginosus O. P.-Cambridge, 1894 — Mexico
• Myrmecotypus lineatipes Chickering, 1937 — Panama
• Myrmecotypus lineatus (Emerton, 1909) — USA
• Myrmecotypus niger Chickering, 1937 — Panama
• Myrmecotypus olympus Reiskind, 1969 — Panama
• Myrmecotypus orpheus Reiskind, 1969 — Panama
• Myrmecotypus pilosus (O. P.-Cambridge, 1898) — Mexico to Panama
• Myrmecotypus rettenmeyeri Unzicker, 1965 — Panama

References

• Reiskind, J. (1965): The Taxonomic Problem of Sexual Dimorphism in Spiders and a Synonymy in Myrmecotypus (Araneae, Clubionidae). Psyche 72: 279-281. PDF

External links

• Pictures of M. lineatus