Ant-Mimicking Spiders: Strategies for Living with Social Insects
- Ceccarelli, Fadia Sara ORCID Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
Published in:
- Psyche: A Journal of Entomology. - Hindawi Limited. - 2013, vol. 2013, p. 1-6
English
Mimicry is a fascinating topic, in particular when viewed in terms of selective forces and evolutionary strategies. Mimicry is a system involving a signaller, a signal receiver, and a model and has evolved independently many times in plants and animals. There are several ways of classifying mimicry based on the interactions and cost-benefit scenarios of the parties involved. In this review, I briefly outline the dynamics of the most common types of mimicry to then apply it to some of the spider-ant associative systems known to date. In addition, this review expands on the strategies that ant-associating (in particular ant-mimicking) spiders have developed to minimise the costs of living close to colonies of potentially dangerous models. The main strategy that has been noted to date is either chemical mimicry or actively avoiding contact with ants. If these strategies warrant protection for the spider (living close to potentially dangerous models), then the benefits of ant associations would outweigh the costs, and the association will prevail.
- Language
-
- English
- Open access status
- gold
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.1155/2013/839181
- ISSN 0033-2615
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/92711
Export to…
Statistics
Document views: 67
File downloads:
- Full-text: 0