Ant‐Mimicking Crab Spiders May Exploit Social Ant Behaviour to Safely Prey on Them

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Neotropical crab spider Aphantochilus rogersi is a Batesian–aggressive mimic of turtle ants, with females guarding egg sacs resembling giant turtle ants feeding on bird droppings. Here I report a preliminary observation indicating that adults may extend this deception into the social domain of their model by carrying giant turtle ants in a way that mimics social nestmate transport. This display likely combines Batesian protection from predators with improved access to prey through aggressive mimicry. Rather than merging multiple deceptive functions within the deceiver, A. rogersi appears to achieve complexity by integrating two non‐communicative contexts of its model species: foraging at bird droppings enabled by gut bacteria symbiosis and the social transport of live nestmates. If confirmed, this behaviour would be conceptually analogous to systems in which predators exploit pre‐existing interactions of their prey—yet here involving an intraspecific cooperative interaction and indirect use of an interspecific ecological context. The case therefore represents a context‐based pathway to complex deception and may constitute the first non‐sexual example of visual aggressive mimicry exploiting a social interaction of the prey.