One of the coolest adaptions insects use to survive is when they try to look like something else in order to fool predators into not eating them. Normally, they look like something which tastes bad or a group of harmful species mimic each other to spread that blanket of protection. Occasionally, though, some take a different path: they might mimic something which isn’t eaten by their predators and screw with the search image to avoid detection. Basically, they hide in plain sight by looking like something which isn’t on the menu.
This picture is taken from the paper cited at the end of this post. This drawing by Virginia Wagner shows the type of mimicry that moths in the genus Brenthia use to survive. The markings on their wings look like the eyes and legs of a jumping spider, one of their main predators.
Jumping spiders are spiders who have very acute vision. They can detect prey a long ways away and identify both prey and other spiders by sight. If they see something which looks like prey and they’re hungry, they’ll be on it faster than the prey can react. However, in this case, the moth sees the spider, raises it’s wings and the spider does what comes naturally…it starts a territorial display and this gives the moth just long enough to flutter off before the spider realizes what the hell just happened.
In the picture above, you can see that the patterns on the forewings mimic the eyes of the spider and the patterns on the hindwings mimic the legs. Even though this pattern seems rudimentary to us, this pattern is successful enough to fool spiders into thinking the moth is another spider most of the time.
Jumping spider mimicry in the animal kingdom is actually very common. Salticids are ubiquitous…they’re on basically every continent and they’re very important predators in the insect world. Because of this, we see jumping spider mimics in almost every insect order.
Jadranka Rota, David L. Wagner (2006). Predator Mimicry: Metalmark Moths Mimic Their Jumping Spider Predators PLoS ONE, 1 (1) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0000045
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Filed under: Arachnology, entomology, General Entomology Tagged: | Araneae, Behavioral Ecology, Butterflies/moths, Ecology, Jumping Spiders, Lepidoptera, Mimicry, Salticids, Spiders
