Anatea

Taxobox
name = "Anatea"


image_caption = "A. formicaria"
image_width = 250px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Arachnida
ordo = Araneae
subordo = Araneomorphae
familia = Theridiidae
genus = "Anatea"
genus_authority = Berland, 1927
diversity_link = List of Theridiidae species#Anatea
diversity = 1 species
species = "A. formicaria"
binomial = "Anatea formicaria"
binomial_authority = Berland, 1927
range_

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range_map_width = 250px

"Anatea formicaria" is an ant-mimicking spider, only known from the rain forest of New Caledonia. Before 1967, it was considered to belong to the family Clubionidae. It was placed there based on the ant-like outward modifications and male genitalia, which superficially resemble those of the genus "Micaria".In fact it is closely related to the genera "Euryopis" and possibly "Achaearanea".Reiskind & Levi 1967]

Males and females look very similar; the male is 2.5mm long.

Although the ant shape is unlikely to deceive an ant, the spider does hunt ants. The ant form is therefore probably to evade predators that would eat spiders, but not ants.

Unlike all other ant mimics from the family Theridiidae, "A. formicaria" mimics the ant's petiole by an elongation of the pedicel. In addition the dorsum of the "petiole" is rugose and has a distinct "node", like most ants do. The abdomen is rounded and highly shiny, mimicking an ant's gaster. The spider mimics the 2.6 mm long myrmicine ant "Chelaner croceiventre", which lives in the same habitat. The color pattern (dark brown anterior, light, yellow brown posterior) of both is quite rare in ants, although two other myrmicine ants from the same area of rain forest ("Xiphomyrma tenuicrius" and "Lordomyrma sp.") also show it. Myrmicine ants have large stings, this avoiding predation. The occurrence of the pattern in these three ant species could be Müllerian mimicry, while the spider uses Batesian mimicry (as it is palatable).

Footnotes

References

* (1967): "Anatea", an ant-mimicking theridiid spider from New Caledonia (Araneae: Theridiidae). "Psyche" 74:20-23. [http://psyche2.entclub.org/articles/74/74-020.pdf PDF]
* (2007): [http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog/index.html The world spider catalog] , version 8.0. "American Museum of Natural History".