Family: Salticidae
Subfamily: Myrmarachninae
Genus: Myrmarachne

Species : Myrmarachne sp BENUK

♀6.5mm

SG. MEROTAI 27-11-2014 THU 8:41AM
KG BENUK 28-7-2014

Actual species name uncertain. So this temporary identification code Myrmarachne sp BENUK is given for record keeping purpose. It was found in Kumpong Benuk Village in Sarawak, hence the name BENUK.
This female Myrmarachne mimic the Weaver Ants in size, shape and colour.
A spider actually has two segments, but an ant mimics spider's body appears like an ant's body of three segments creates the illusion of having a distinct head, thorax and gaster of the weaver ant, complete with a long and slender waist.

The large compound eyes of the weaver ant are mimicked by two black patches on the spider head.

The cephalothorax is elongated, with long chelicerae projecting forward in males. A waist is present on the cephalothorax, and often also on the opisthosoma. Colors vary from black to yellow, depending on the mimicked ant species. One African species was observed to mimick one species when immature, and another as an adult.

The exception to this rule are the assassin spiders, whose cephalothorax is divided into two parts by an elongated "neck". Except for a few species of very primitive spiders (family Liphistiidae, also called segmented spiders), the abdomen is not externally segmented. The abdomen and cephalothorax are connected with a thin waist called the pedicle or the pregenital somite, a trait that allows the spider to move the abdomen in all directions. This waist is actually the last segment (somite) of the cephalothorax and is lost in most other members of the Arachnida (in scorpions it is only detectable in the embryos). Unlike insects, spiders have an endoskeleton in addition to their exoskeleton.[2]