This Spider Really Commits to Its Ant Impression

It's a good thing field sobriety tests don't exist for bugs, because the jumping spider Myrmarachne formicaria would fail for doing what keeps it alive: walking in a wobbly line. The spider fools predators by imitating an ant. The act is so thorough that it includes how the spider looks, stands and even moves. Many, many types of jumping spiders have evolved to look like ants. Imitating another animal with better defenses is a tried-and-true strategy for avoiding predators. And ants are a good option because they can be aggressive or venomous. A spider that does a decent ant impression can scare off some of its predators without having to evolve those defenses itself. One of those ant-aping jumping spiders is Myrmarachne formicaria. (Formicaria is Latin for "ant-ish.") In general, ants are slender, while spiders are chunky; ants have six legs and spiders have eight. But M. formicaria has a ...