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Photo#604516
F. gracilis - dorsal - Falconina gracilis - male

F. gracilis - dorsal - Falconina gracilis - Male
Austin Nature and Science Center, Travis County, Texas, USA
December 28, 2011
Size: 7mm (after feeding)
Found under a rock. I assumed this would be Castianeira, probably C. longipalpa, but the palp was wildly non-Castianeira. The palp is quite unique and matched SONA figure 20.35 very well. (I have a permit to collect in Austin parks.)

The spider was 6mm when I got it but grew to 7mm after eating a cricket. I fed it a cricket about four times its mass. The spider leapt onto the cricket without hesitation and wrestled with it for a while, standing tall on its legs to get on top. During the struggle it kept its palps wide apart and seemingly as far as it could from the cricket.

The spider seemed to have sand ground into its carapace, which I could only get out to a limited extent by bombarding it with drops of water, prior to the above photo shoot. The sand is even difficult to get off scratching at it with a tool in alcohol under a scope.

Images of this individual: tag all
F. gracilis - dorsal - Falconina gracilis - male F. gracilis - side angle - Falconina gracilis - male F. gracilis - face - Falconina gracilis - male F. gracilis - lateral - Falconina gracilis - male F. gracilis - ventral - Falconina gracilis - male

FYI
FYI, no one seems willing to justify the apparent association between fire ants and F. gracilis. Allen Dean thinks that the association is only hypothesis based on field intuition. I have not heard back from Cokendolpher. A search through the scientific literature yielded only one article referencing both Falconina gracilis and Solenopsis invicta, but it did not mention an association between them.

(Note that the Info page quotes the "association" mention found in SONA.)

 
Association between fire ants and F. gracilis
It sounds like someone could use this as a study/paper topic.

Falconina gracilis
It looks like it worked fairly well. Great shots.

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

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