Name the Insect or Spider

[ExFmem]

Please post a pic of a fire ant, sis

Here are a few pics of the fire ants that built a “raft” across the water to move their colony and larvae to higher, dry ground.




The ants weave themselves into something like three-dimensional Gore-Tex, a fabric that is both breathable and waterproof. The ants form air pockets by pushing away from whichever ants they are connected to, creating highly buoyant rafts that are 75 percent air. The weave of the ant fabric is held together by multiple connections among individual ants, which orient themselves perpendicular to one another. “What’s happening at the big scale is the result of lots of interactions at the small scale,” Hu said. The result is a water-repellant lattice that enables even the ants at the bottom of the structure to survive.



They move their queen and larvae to the center of the raft, where they stay high and dry on top of the mass of bodies. The fine coat of hairs on the ants traps enough air that those on the bottom layer of the raft avoid being completely submerged.







https://www.quantamagazine.org/ants-bui ... -20140409/

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/urb ... re_ant.htm

[Lisbeth]

Incredible creatures

[Alf]

Amazing

[Richprins]

Ex!

[ExFmem]

At first sight, I look like the offspring of two different insects, neither of which I share the same Family.

My name also includes two different insects, neither of which I am.

I like spiders.

What's my common name?

[Dindingwe]

AntLion

Are Lions an insect

[ExFmem]

Wonderful to "see" you again

Sorry, not an Antlion

Try again

[Klipspringer]

Mantisflies have the head and front arms of a Praying Mantis, but the abdomen and wings of a Lacewing. But they are neither related to mantids, nor flies. Mantisfly larvae love spider eggs!

[ExFmem]

Mantisflies have the head and front arms of a Praying Mantis, but the abdomen and wings of a Lacewing. But they are neither related to mantids, nor flies. Mantisfly larvae love spider eggs!

Great Job

[ExFmem]

At first sight, I look like the offspring of two different insects, neither of which I share the same Family.

My name also includes two different insects, neither of which I am.

I like spiders.

*******************
Answer:

Mantisflies (Family Mantispidae)

Other Common Names:Mantidflies, Mantid Lacewings





Mantisflies look like lacewings, but with raptorial, mantid-like forelegs.

Family characteristics:
* prothorax elongated, resembling a giraffe's neck
* large "raptorial" front legs, modified for catching prey--with claw and spines,
* front legs originate from anterior part of thorax (at front of elongated prothorax), so that only four legs are usually used for walking--front legs are held up, used for catching prey
* head triangular with large eyes, mantid-like





Size: 20-35 mm

Range: Worldwide (mostly tropical) & across NA, more diverse in the south

Food
Predatory: Adults eat small insects, caught with their raptorial forelegs.

Larvae in the subfamily Mantispinae are predators in the egg sacs of spiders, draining egg contents through a piercing/sucking tube formed by modified mandibles and maxillae. First-instar mantispids use two strategies to locate spider eggs:

1. Larvae may burrow directly through the silk of spider egg sacs they find.
2. They may board and be carried by female spiders prior to sac production, entering the sac as it is being constructed. Larvae maintain themselves aboard spiders by feeding on spider blood. Transfers of larvae from spider to spider are possible during spider mating or cannibalism. All of the major groups of hunting spiders are attacked by spider-boarding mantispids; the egg sacs of web-building species are also entered by egg-sac penetrators





In the other subfamilies, larvae are more generalist predators of other insects, especially terrestrial larvae of scarab beetles, noctuid moths, and certain wasps.
.


https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/1 ... lCode=ento

https://bugguide.net/node/view/4796