Myrmarachne colombiana sp. n. (Araneae: Salticidae), a new species of ant-mimic spider in copal from Colombia, South America

ABSTRACT

Ant-mimicking spiders (Araneae: Salticide) are fascinating creatures that have evolved modified morphology and behaviours to resemble those of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Ant-mimicking spiders are cosmopolitan but currently, there are no records of such spiders in fossilised resin, nor any records of extant ant- mimicking spiders in Colombia, S.A. The present study describes Myrmarachne colombiana sp. n. (Araneae: Salticidae) as the first species of ant-mimicking spider in fossilised resin (copal) from Colombia, discusses possible ages of copal inclusions around the world, and examines various scenarios showing why spiders have become ant mimics.

The LSID for the paper is:urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:DA4E7993-C1B7-46DF-9863-47BD1DAA6686

And for the new species: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:849971BF-D641-41C7-AB67-7B01B6CBEE77

KEYWORDS:

• Copal spider
• Batesian mimicry
• fossilised resin
• Formicidae

Acknowledgments

The author thanks five anonymous reviewers for their extensive comments, Alex E. Brown for supplying references on spider mimics and Jörg Wunderlich for confirming that the spider belongs to the genus Myrmarachne MacLeay, 1839.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.