Myrmecotypus

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Myrmecotypus

M. rettenmeyeri

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Suborder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Corinnidae
Genus:	Myrmecotypus O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1894

Diversity

8 species

Species

See text.

Myrmecotypus is a spider genus that mimics ants. All species occur from Panama to Mexico, with one species found in the USA.

Camponotus sericeiventris

M. rettenmeyeri has a strange longitudinal band of black hairs extending along the midline of the cephalothorax. This seems to enhance the resemblance to the ant Camponotus sericeiventris with which it shares the same habitat. The crests of black hairs correspond to the solid longitudinal keel-like dorsal extensions of the posterior sections of the ant's thorax.

M. rettenmeyeri is named after entomologist Carl W. Rettenmeyer, who researched ants.

[edit] Species

Myrmecotypus fuliginosus O. P.-Cambridge, 1894 — Mexico
Myrmecotypus lineatipes Chickering, 1937 — Panama
Myrmecotypus lineatus (Emerton, 1909) — USA
Myrmecotypus niger Chickering, 1937 — Panama
Myrmecotypus olympus Reiskind, 1969 — Panama
Myrmecotypus orpheus Reiskind, 1969 — Panama
Myrmecotypus pilosus (O. P.-Cambridge, 1898) — Mexico to Panama
Myrmecotypus rettenmeyeri Unzicker, 1965 — Panama

[edit] References

Reiskind, J. (1965): The Taxonomic Problem of Sexual Dimorphism in Spiders and a Synonymy in Myrmecotypus (Araneae, Clubionidae). Psyche 72: 279-281. PDF