Red weaver ant-mimicking spider
Myrmaplata plataleoides
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSpidersRainforests and jungles8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin
The red weaver ant-mimicking spider is a jumping spider in a clever costume. It looks and walks just like a red weaver ant. It even waves its front legs in the air like ant feelers, so other animals think it is an ant.
Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
India, Sri Lanka, China and South-east Asia, in trees and bushes
Length
0.6 to 1.2 cm (0.24 to 0.47 in)
What does it eat?
It hides under a thin web on a leaf and ambushes small insects.
How big is it?
How long is it?
🍚as long as 2 grains of rice in a row🍽️could run across a dinner table in 3.3 seconds⚡moves 25 times its own body length every second
How big is Red weaver ant-mimicking spider compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
Red weaver ant-mimicking spider about 1.1 km/h (0.68 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Two black patches on its head look like the big eyes of an ant.
2
The male has very long jaws and looks like a big ant carrying a small one.
3
It only jumps when it is in danger.
you asked
Most asked questions about Red weaver ant-mimicking spider
?Is the red weaver ant-mimicking spider an ant?
No. It is a jumping spider that looks and moves like a weaver ant.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Myrmaplata plataleoides
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Salticidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Salticidae
- Lives on
- Asia
- Also known as
- Red weaver-ant mimicking jumper
Where the facts come from
- Myrmaplata plataleoides (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Vengolis. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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