ant mimicking spider id pls

[Shahin Taj]

its a jumping spider

[shelliebear]

I'm no expert but after a teensy bit of research it does look quite a bit like Myrmarachne plataleoide.

[Mandy]

Excellent research, ShellieBear! This is definitely a female in the genus Myrmarachne, and M. plataleoides would have been my first suggestion as well.

If this is M. plataleoides, it is a fairly well-known species in Asia and has a bunch of papers documenting the genitalia, so you should be able to easily check it under a microscope and confirm the ID. (Since you are working with spiders for your dissertation, I am assuming you can find them on your own, but if not, let me know and I can share some with you.)

There are a whole bunch of other Myrmarachne in India, though, so a microscope exam is absolutely necessary for the accuracy of your project.

[shelliebear]

Quick question: Is the body shape fairly unique to this specific species of spider (M. plataleoides)? That's the main thing I was looking at in the photos of M. Plataleoides was the body shape did seem to be quite different from other ant-like spiders when you look closely. The middle section is quite slim and the legs have a bandy pattern. I didn't see much of that on other ant like spiders! Just curious and making sure my ID suspicions were for the right reasons.

[Mandy]

Nope, not really. This body shape isn't really unique to only that species. The long, slender waist (pedicel) and the shape of the cephalothorax and abdomen is a common characteristic for many of the species in the genus Myrmarachne. Some are black or dark brown instead, but most are reddish orange like this. All have a super long waist and a general ant-like appearance though. The main reason I would have also suggested M. plataleoides was based on how common and well-studied it is, coupled with the fact that it does look just like the female... but can't be 100% certain she's that species without a microscope exam. (Even then, the Myrmarachne can be difficult to tell apart since their genitalia are so similar.)

I wish there were a website or something that had images of every species that I could show you, but nothing like that exists for spiders yet. Many of the species may not even have photographs of them while they were alive (only ones when they've already been preserved in alcohol).

Even though other ant mimic jumping spiders can look like this too, you did an excellent job! Usually what happens is that people google "ant mimic jumping spider" and name the first species they come across that remotely resembles it... but they don't check on where that species lives. So out of the hundreds of Myrmarachne in the world, you got one that was from India and was likely the correct species! Nice work!

[Shahin Taj]

Thank u so much for your reply
I surely confirm it using under the microscope and not only in India this sps is also commonly found in Australia