Things are not always what they seem in this place…

I often bring in accidental travelers when I gather leaves to feed my silkworms.  I get leaf hoppers, the occasional spider or caterpillar… and so I don’t worry too much when I notice something crawly coming out of my leaf bags.

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Today’s immigrant seemed not-quite-right somehow.  It’s a tiny little ant – or is it?  It runs like an ant… it wiggles its little antennae like an ant – but then every once in a while, its disguise slips.  It seems just a little too happy to be an ant alone – and it just didn’t move quite right.  It was hard to tell, because it’s so small and moves so fast – but eventually I got it to declare itself – I tipped my hand sideways, and it promptly caught itself mid-fall with a rapelling rope and climbed back up.

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He is SO a spider.  Perfect mimic – I really did have to catch him in the act to be sure. I’m guessing, with a brief Google search and a flip through BugGuide.net, that it’s a jumping spider called Peckhamia picata.  I think theirs is bigger, though – mine is maybe 2 mm long.

I kept him in a little plastic container so I could get some photos and to show Chris.  You can see how he built himself a little web nest:

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11 replies
  1. webwawa
    webwawa says:

    Amazing!!! I found a little jumping spider that looked like a toy scorpion without the tail (in my flckr – link on webwawa.com)

    🙂

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