The skinwalkers are among us
this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
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Great info, even the funny they-don't-jump part, def looks like they don't have the jumping hydraulics >!(but I'm always sad to see dead spiders)!<.
Bottom left is definitely a spider. I count 8 legs and can see the distinct segmentation of a spider body. Though, really, just dat fat ass gives it away.
... arent they all spiders?
(Besides the leggies & butts, eyes are also an ez clue.)
I think so, too. They all seem to have eight legs, more than two eyes, which don't look like compound eyes, a cephalothorax/two body segments rather than three, a lack of antennae, etc. It would probably be easier to tell looking at them head-on so we could see their chelicerae.
Edit: turns out the pedipalps are more of a giveaway.
Man, I wish spiders didn't creep me out so much. They're very cool, but my ancient lizard brain isn't having it.
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They are all spiders, but if it hadn't said they were all spiders I could have still just looked at that guy with little scrutiny and went "wait a minute..." He looks the least ant-like.
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I saw in a documental a snake which fools ants, but not to eat these, but to use these as bait for fooling lizards, which are the real prey for the snake.
- The snake buried itself in the sand, leaving only the tail point, imitating a tan of grass
- This attracts the ant
- This in turn attracts the lizard who wants to eat the ant
- End of the lizard
Evolution games
Jumping spiders are anywayvery smart for catching their prey, even without the need to disguise their aspect, analyzing the situation and adjust their strategy.
The crab of the insect world?
Arthropods, man. They have two ideals and everything goes toward them.
Evolution to spiders: We've decided to combine your head and thorax.
Some jumping spiders: Nah
Lmao, giraffe spiders!
Spider-Ant
Spider-Ant
Does whatever a spider can
Can he jump from a branch?
No he can't, he is an ant
Look out, he is a Spider-Ant!
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Except jump
Cause it would be sus
Among ants be like 'Did Carl just casually jump 20 stories high like it was nothing??'
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Are ants so visual? I guess so, or there wouldn't be enough advantage for these guys to develop. I thought they went purely by sensing pheromones.
Maybe it isn't just fooling ants?
Don't know the advantage to fooling everything else but they are convincing. Worked in a warehouse that had a bunch of the red ones one summer. Everybody thought there was an ant problem but they seemed off to me. Firstly, they were never in groups, you'd only find lone ones wandering. Secondly, they walked like ants but held their "antennae" strangely. Lastly, when knocking one off a box I discovered they have a tether thread.
Ants are rarely visual, but I’m also struggling to figure out which predator this is meant to dissuade.
Consider: the goal isn’t for predators to be fooled, but prey.
Lots of things consider ants totally harmless, like aphids that gets farmed and stuff. Perhaps it’s an adaptation to throw those things off.
Aphids are borderline mindless, their chief strategy is simply breeding more aphids. I’ve gleefully spectated ladybugs devouring dozens of aphids, and not a single one responded in any way. Tiny dead idiots.
You might be on the right track, but I’m still struggling.
Honestly was just the first example I could come up with, but the fact remains that a lot of things do consider ants to be harmless because they aren’t, like, hunting those things. Especially other small arthropods.
I’m sure there are some hunting ant species (like the 200 army ant species), but most of them aren’t.
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Ah, so these spiders look like ants to fool the aphids that ants farm. Similar to how something that looked a lot like a human might fool cows and sheep into following them away to be eaten.
I would guess it's to fool their prey.
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I could be violet sky
So in addition to crabification, we also have antification. Evolution really just found an energy minima at eight legs, huh?
Carcinisation is a bit more of an adaption to environment (convergent evolution into same-ish shape for the by-chanceb best utility of it ... ie a perfect body) vs niche mimicry which is in relation to another specific species (ie some else's body).
It's more that the lobster plan (long body) is really quite good in many niches, but the crab plan (wide body, no exposed tail) works better in more productive ecosystems that have more predators. So anything lobster shaped coming up from the deep mud will have to reduce its tail or get sniped by a fish
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Proper ants only have 6 legs, though. But yeah, these spiders-turned-to-ants would have 8 legs.
Well, and crabs technically have 10 legs, with their foremost pair typically equipped with pincers. 🙃
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