Myrmecotypus

Myrmecotypus
File:Myrmecotypus.rettenmeyeri.lateral.svg
M. rettenmeyeri
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Corinnidae
Genus:	Myrmecotypus O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1894
Species
See text.
Diversity
10 species

Myrmecotypus is a spider genus that mimics ants. Species mainly occur Panama to Mexico, with one species found in the USA, and one in Argentina, suggesting distribution may be much wider than currently appreciated. 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.

File:Camponotus.sericeiventris.lateral.svg

Camponotus sericeiventris

Species

• Myrmecotypus fuliginosus O. P.-Cambridge, 1894 — Mexico
• Myrmecotypus jasmineae Leister & Miller, 2014 — Nicaragua
• Myrmecotypus iguazu Rubio & Arbino, 2009 — Argentina
• 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

References

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

External links

• Pictures of M. lineatus