Masters of Deception: Part 1
RAHUL
My Journey into the World of Ant-Mimicking Spiders
In this two-part article series, Rahul takes us through his fascinating research journey involving ant-mimicking spiders and the model ants that they mimic. In this article, he tells us about how he accidentally drifted into studying these fascinating arachnids, while in the second article, he takes us further into his story of studying an intriguing class of black ant mimicking spiders. Make sure to read both the pieces!
The story dates back to 2019. I was working at the Division of Entomology (a branch of biology that focuses on insects), Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR-IARI) in New Delhi on a project on the biosystematics of moths belonging to the family Tortricida, which has bell-shaped micro-moths. As part of my research work, I was planning to visit Meghalaya and Nagaland to collect moths. When my friend from another lab, Anand Harsana, learnt of this, he requested me to bring ant specimens from there as he was unable to go with me.
A moth from the Tortricidae family
Sondhi, S., Y. Sondhi, R.P. Singh, P. Roy and K. Kunte (Chief Editors) 2025. Moths of India, v. 3.82.
While staying at the ICAR guest house of Jharnapani, Nagaland, I encountered a beautiful star-fruit tree nearby, laden with bright yellow-orange coloured fruits. Out of enchantment, I went close to the tree and plucked one of the fruits from its lower branch. After returning to my guest house, as I was just about to wash the starfruit to eat it, I observed a translucent cotton-like structure stuck between its ridges. When I removed the structure, I found an ant inside which jumped as it attempted to escape . It struck me as quite unusual that ants would make cottony nests and jump in that fashion. Although I usually collect my insect specimens in 70% ethanol, I kept this specimen alive in a separate vial.
“A myrmecomorph?”, I asked, to which Stuti explained that many insects and spiders mimic ants! And these ant mimics are called myrmecomorphs. I was surprised and fascinated at the same time. It was this chance encounter with this strange insect that sparked my interest to work on ant-mimics during my Ph.D.
The spider which I collected from a star-fruit tree in Nagaland is a member of the species Myrmarachne melanocephala and it mimics a bicoloured ant called Tetraponera rufonigra. This ant is known to harbour venom and has quite a painful sting. The venom also contains toxins that cause pain, inflammation, and anaphylaxis in humans. The spiders which mimic these ants, therefore, gain survival benefits by fooling its predators into mistaking it to be the venomous ant!
On returning to ICAR-IARI, I handed over all the ant samples to my friend Anand except the one that I collected from star-fruit. Next morning, while I was observing the strange ant under the microscope at the lab, my friend Stuti Rai, who is also a trained entomologist, asked me what I was doing. Then I showed her the weird behaving ant, she smiled and said “this is not an ant, this is a “myrmecromorph.”
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Myrmarachne melanocephala, the ant-mimicking spider!
My first encounter with an ant-mimicking spider at Jharnapani, Nagaland.
Illustration by Rahul
Tetraponera rufonigra,
the ant!
Subsequently, during my Ph.D., I discovered the same ant-mimic and the model ant species at the Hazaribagh Wildlife Sanctuary, Jharkhand, as well and studied their biogeography. Studying an organism's biogeography involves exploring the spread of its species and its ecosystem across geographical regions, over long periods of geological time. The ant model as well as the ant mimicking spider are similar in body colour, appearance and size. Besides, it is striking that the spider even mimics behavioural characteristics of the ant, including its zig-zag walking pattern and gait. Some of my findings are reported in the Journal of Threatened Taxa.
About Rahul
Dr. Rahul Kumar is a trained molecular biologist with special interest in ecology and evolution. During his Ph.D., he worked on the biology of mimicry using ant-mimicking spiders as model, recorded more than 150 mimic-model pairs from Chhotanagpur Plateau and also developed a nanotechnology-based quick insect species detection method. Along with teaching, he researches different aspects of arthropod behaviour (including mimicry), experimental evolution using flour beetles, chemical ecology of sessile hemipterans, arthropod diversity of Magadh region and survival strategies of different insects at his small "Evolution Lab" far from the noise of the cities. He is also associate editor of Indian Entomologist, a popular magazine published by Entomological Society of India. He is a published poet, avid storyteller and loves sketching in his free time.
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