Amyciaea

The first time I saw it was in my garden. I initially mistook it to be a regular red weaver ant that are common around my house. It was only when I saw it hanging down by its dragline (a spider silk strand that is attached to them when them jump/fall off) that I knew that I was observing a spider. They are such experts in mimicking them! Now I knew why there are known as ant mimicking crab spiders 🙂 . They mimic the weaver ants with an objective to prey on them.

I continued to observe it move around the leaves and periodically hang down from the leaf using its dragline. Here are some pictures to show it from various angles.

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It finally used its dragline to disappear onto the neighbour’s tree.

The individual that I saw is likely to be a Amyciaea forticeps. However one cannot be certain without possibly dissecting it 🙂

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