My ADHD brain counting all the legs on these mfers for the past five minutes...
this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
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It's lucky for them ants can't count. "...seven, eight legs?? Wait a minute!"
The skinwalkers are among us
imagine if a species of lemur evolved to broadly look like us, but still with lemur faces and stuff
that's basically what's happening for ants, terrifying
I don't think ants see very well, so it'd prob be more like lemurs that look exactly like us, but smell like ozone and old grease.
Note to self - automotive mechanics may be lemurs, High voltage electricians certainly are
Spider-Ant
Spider-Ant
Does whatever a spider can
Except jump
Cause it would be sus
Among ants be like 'Did Carl just casually jump 20 stories high like it was nothing??'
Can he jump from a branch?
No he can't, he is an ant
Look out, he is a Spider-Ant!
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I could be an ant.
Imagine trying to hide an entire pair of legs when you're hanging out with ants
"ohoho no! these aren't legs, they're pedipalps! mmm, pedipalps to help me eat!"
What big pedipalps you have, great aunt!
Bottom left is definitely a spider. I count 8 legs and can see the distinct segmentation of a spider body. Though, really, just dat fat ass gives it away.
... arent they all spiders?
(Besides the leggies & butts, eyes are also an ez clue.)
I think so, too. They all seem to have eight legs, more than two eyes, which don't look like compound eyes, a cephalothorax/two body segments rather than three, a lack of antennae, etc. It would probably be easier to tell looking at them head-on so we could see their chelicerae.
Edit: turns out the pedipalps are more of a giveaway.
Man, I wish spiders didn't creep me out so much. They're very cool, but my ancient lizard brain isn't having it.
Get a pet jumping spider. They don't eat much, don't need a large enclosure, you can handle them, and their venom is not significant to humans (they don't really bite anyway).
My partner has two of them on her desk, and catching them exploring or sunning themselves is a little happiness boost every time.
Here is one chilling out.
ancient lizard brain
I’m with you 100% spiders-wise but wonder if it’s cultural rather than lizard-brained. If I had a kid whom I could convince
- spiders don’t scare me and should not scare you,
- spiders, humans, and dogs are all reasonable animals to have in our home,
then would this kid be down with spiders’ company?
Nah, my mother loved spiders and we somehow regularly had fucking massive house spiders crawling around on the ceiling of the house when I was growing up. I swear she must have been bringing them into the house at one point or something, we definitely had a well above average amount of spiders for a good few years there.
There was only ever one at a time though, that I ever saw anyway, but they were those really big, hairy bastards that you can count the legs off from across the room and don't look like they're supposed to live in England.
Fast too, so fast, and eerily silent as they skittered, with too many angles protruding from their fat bodies. If you couldn't see them so starkly outlined against the white ceiling, you'd never even know they were up there, and they'd cross the room in less time than it took you to walk there yourself.
My mum thought they were cool though and called them all Boris and she'd talk to them like they were bloody cats. Mad woman.
I am (thank fuck) not my mother and shit scared of most spiders*. My mothers' behaviour did not impact my perfectly rational fear of potentially dangerous creatures crawling around my house. I know giant house spiders aren't dangerous to humans, but plenty of other big spiders around the world are and I don't think it's wise to try desensitise human children to this, especially as more and more species now will be migrating due to climate change.
*Jumping spiders are cool, I like those ones. They're surprusingly smart, and cute, and they've even evolved a vegetarian amongst them.
I know giant house spiders aren’t dangerous to humans, but plenty of other big spiders around the world are and I don’t think it’s wise to try desensitise human children to this
There is actually not a lot of them, really just a handful of species per continent (out of 53.000). It's much easier to learn about the few medical significant spiders in your area and be cool to the rest of the spiderbros.
Be cool to all animals, killing them is not OK.
But also, common house spider spreads antibiotic-resistant bacteria to humans, study finds, so maybe don't be so blasé about letting them live in your house?
Alright, I tracked down the original source (no links provided in the news article ...) and it seems they do mean the noble false widow when they say "common house spider". Which I guess is technically correct, because it's a common spider to find in your home (in the UK, Ireland and California, that is).
Anyway, the actual article is quite interesting and above my paygrade as an amateur enthusiast. The first thing that stood out to me was that they said "In addition to their medically significant venom", refering to Steatoda nobilis. That is not what is widley accepted amonst arachnologists.
So I forwarded it to a friend who is a proper, published arachnologist. He immedietly replied with "Oh, yeah, the Dunbar study". It seems to be kind of a one-off study so far (there are very few properly documented bites to begin with). The professional called the study "valuable" but also said that he was "sceptical of the interpretation".
I would add that bites from Steatoda (and Theridiidae in generall, which includes black widows) are very rare and quite easy to avoid. They are very stationay spiders and can stay their entire live in a single web (the females. Males will wander around during mating season, but even amongst the black widows, only the mature females are considered medically significant).
I'll still happily have Steatoda spiders in my flat with no worries. I know them, they're cool.
Uff ... this article. Talking about a common house spider, showing a picture of a noble false widow but labeling it a black widow ... I'm gonna disect that in a minute, wait for my next reply.
i think it's instinctive to go "OH FUCK" when something of sufficient size skitters about, but not instinctive to specifically hate spiders
and it doesn't matter what the skittery thing is, if a mouse scurries across my floor i'm gonna get spooked too, and i think mice are cute!
I see mice outside and I’m like “awwwwwwwww”.
I hear about people seeing spiders inside and my pulse rate rises.
Yeah, I also think its cultural and not an instinct. We don't have screens on the windows, so letting spiders roam freely means I don't get flies, which are objectively worse to cohabitate with.
Omg, at least it's alive in your pic, ty <3.
And yes, we are hardwired for some memetics about spider-looking things, but being amazed by them, understanding them biologically, & perhaps a bit of co-living (about as close to befriending them without them being "a pet" & still independent - you know, just seeing & saying hi to Clara every day, watching the life of a begin with ups & downs) may adapt how the association network in your brainhole is used.
(Just guessing.)
No problem!
That's very accurate. I don't mind handling tarantulas or furry jumping spiders, but shiny spiders of any kind creep me out. Bonus point for terror if there's webbing involved. Hobo spiders are probably the worst. They're so fast and aggressive. I still catch them and take them outside, but it still feels awful. The only exception to the mercy rule is the shower. Shower spiders go down the drain immediately.
Poor clean spiders.
But I get what you are saying, it makes some intuitive sense.
In my case I think I've (as a kid) narrowed down the technical memetic part mostly to the very centre-point where the 8 lines end, so basically my brain recognising the legs (starting from the end of the legs) & then seeing how they "end" up in one narrow place (so, relatively to spider leg size, if the sternum looking from the bottom or the end part of prosoma from the top is "too tightly together" or even too perfectly round/octagonal shaped).
(And spiders differ very much in that regard, even the same one in relation to how well fed it is :D.)
Why? Idk, but doesn't feel learned.
(It's still there, but not the default/I have to think about it more actively.)
That I remember (again, as a kid) I was only triggered (differently than described above) by one "too smooth" species, the poor, harmless, misjudged beneficial, cute (well, as all spiders) wasp spiders.
I didn't harm them but it's a sad memory for me bcs the smol town (or the whole valley?) I grew up in basically doesn't have them anymore. Bcs we hate flowers/biodiversity, but love grass & pesticides I guess. I should be glad they were even still around for me to experience them.
(No pics bcs you mentioned you only like unshaven butts & legs.)
I didn’t harm them but it’s a sad memory for me bcs the smol town (or the whole valley?) I grew up in basically doesn’t have them anymore. Bcs we hate flowers/biodiversity, but love grass & pesticides I guess.
Wasp spider actually primarily live in tall grass. Big, unmown fields of grass are a great place to look for them. But I guess pesticides don't help.
Yes, you are correct, I was inaccurate in my description of events - they systematically cut grass & nothing looks wild anymore (but also less tall grass & there are less mixed meadows).
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They are all spiders, but if it hadn't said they were all spiders I could have still just looked at that guy with little scrutiny and went "wait a minute..." He looks the least ant-like.
Oh, yeah, true - but I don't know what species of ants it's mimicking. Perhaps that's just how they look too & now we are body-shaming ants for looking too spidery ('sup, you 6-legged no-neck with that thicc ass') :D.
It seems like it's Myrmarachne maxillosa, very snooty thing.
It's prob mimicking a puppy or something.
Here is one desperately trying to toucha the butt of another:
As for who they are copypastaing:
It probably mimics the Common Spiny Ants of the genus Polyharchis.
Yeah, these ants indeed have a dump truck:
(And these ~~horny~~ spiny ants do come in way more spinier flavours, pretty metal.)
Evolution to spiders: We've decided to combine your head and thorax.
Some jumping spiders: Nah
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I could be violet sky
The crab of the insect world?
Arthropods, man. They have two ideals and everything goes toward them.
No, I'm not ant.
Are ants so visual? I guess so, or there wouldn't be enough advantage for these guys to develop. I thought they went purely by sensing pheromones.
Maybe it isn't just fooling ants?
Don't know the advantage to fooling everything else but they are convincing. Worked in a warehouse that had a bunch of the red ones one summer. Everybody thought there was an ant problem but they seemed off to me. Firstly, they were never in groups, you'd only find lone ones wandering. Secondly, they walked like ants but held their "antennae" strangely. Lastly, when knocking one off a box I discovered they have a tether thread.
Ants are rarely visual, but I’m also struggling to figure out which predator this is meant to dissuade.
The Wikipedia page on ant mimicry is full of fun facts, but the relevant bits:
Jumping spiders in the genus Myrmarachne are Batesian mimics
Batesian mimics lack strong defences of their own, and make use of their resemblance to a well-defended model, in this case ants, to avoid being attacked by their predators.
Studies on this genus have revealed that the major selection force is the avoidance of ants by predators such as spider wasps and other larger jumping spiders.
But also (not specific to Myrmarachne):
Ant mimics can be myrmecophilous, with the mimics and their ant models living commensally together. In the case of ants, the mimic is an inquiline in the ants' nest. Such mimics may in addition be Batesian or aggressive (predator) mimics. To overcome ants' powerful defences, mimics may imitate ants chemically with ant-like pheromones, visually, or by imitating an ant's surface microstructure to defeat the ants' tactile inspections.
Thats actually wild, they can smell like ants and are convincing enough to pass a physical ant patdown. Crazy.
squeezes your buttcheek yeah they're human, carry on
Consider: the goal isn’t for predators to be fooled, but prey.
Lots of things consider ants totally harmless, like aphids that gets farmed and stuff. Perhaps it’s an adaptation to throw those things off.
Aphids are borderline mindless, their chief strategy is simply breeding more aphids. I’ve gleefully spectated ladybugs devouring dozens of aphids, and not a single one responded in any way. Tiny dead idiots.
You might be on the right track, but I’m still struggling.
fun fact: aphids are born pregnant (or at least they can be)
Moreover, they can give birth to live young. Live young that are, as you said, pregnant. Pregnant with live, pregnant young. They’re a veritable Russian nesting doll. My loathing for these parthenogenic little fucks cannot be overstated.
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