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Green Tree Ant Spider (male)
Cosmophasis bitaeniata
-16.8163, 145.686
Field Notes
Description:
Jumping spider to 7mm body length. Bright orange patterned abdomen. Pink and blue iridescent flashes on his legs. Constantly on the move. It was spotted cruising around the periphery of a small green ant nest, perhaps looking to prey upon the ant larvae. (see notes below)
Habitat:
Edge of forest on James Cook University, Cairns campus.
Notes:
A jumping spider found in New Guinea, Australia and Micronesia. Cosmophasis bitaeniata is a myrmecophilic associate of the green tree ant, Oecophylla smaragdina. The abundance of C. bitaeniata on a tree or shrub is positively correlated with the number of nests of O. smaragdina on that vegetation. Experiments with captive spiders confirmed that the spiders prey on the larvae by removing them from the mandibles of minor workers. C. bitaeniata avoids direct contact with major workers of O. smaragdina in daylight. It is thought C. bitaeniata may be an exploitative chemical mimic of its host.
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