The dark-footed ant-spider Myrmarachne melanotarsa is a liar. It’s a jumping spider that impersonates ants. It certainly looks the part, but it boosts the illusion with a social streak. To mimic the large societies of ants, the ant-spider travels in groups and lives in silken apartment complexes, with hundreds of individuals staying in nests connected by silk. This act protects the ant-spider from larger spiders that might eat it. It also allows the ant-spider to raid the nests of those same larger spiders. The would-be predators run away and abandon their eggs and youngsters to the charlatans. The ant-spider is a spider that looks like an ant to avoid being eaten by spiders so that it itself can eat spiders.

More: Spiders gather in groups to impersonate ants and Spider mimics ant to eat spiders and avoid being eaten by spiders