A spider, an ant, and a termite walk into a bar ...

Co-authored by Matjaž Gregorič, Kuang Ping Yu, Jeremia Ravelojaonaj, Ingi Agnarsson, and Matjaž Kuntner (the first and last are researchers at the Jovan Hadži Institute of Biology ZRC SAZU), a scientific article has been published that could easily be titled A Spider, an Ant, and a Termite Enter a Bar. Read on to find out why! 

The article presents a previously undiscovered, unusual three-way ecological interaction, the main characters of which are a termite as prey, a spider as predator and an ant as kleptoparasite. “During fieldwork in the Marojejy National Park in Madagascar, we came across this scene: a small spider preyed on termite workers who were busy repairing their damaged nest,” said Matjaž Gregorič, which inspired the researchers to write a scientific article, which is actually titled A perilous Malagasy triad: a spider (Vigdisia praesidens, gen. and sp. nov.) and an ant compete for termite food, published in the New Zealand Journal of Zoology and is available in full at this link. 

Spiders feeding on termites is not often heard of, so they continued their research. Spiders are not found in the vicinity of intact termite mounds. However, when a mound is damaged for one reason or another, they seem to sense it from afar and simply swoop in and prey on its inhabitants. Spiders may initially be tolerant of each other, but later a real fight can break out between them for the juicy termites. It is a species of the genus Nasutitermes, in which the soldiers spray sticky terpene hydrocarbons from their snouts, immobilizing their predators. But the soldiers do not even notice the attacking spiders ... 

Then something surprising happens: Pheidole spinosa ants enter the scene and steal the spiders' freshly wrapped termite prey. Fast food, so to speak, that they get without having to deal with dangerous termite soldiers. They were helped to determine the species of ant by Dr. Brian Fisher himself, one of the world's most prominent myrmecologists and "the god of Malagasy myrmecology", as Gregorič put it. Fisher also confided in them that myrmecologists also affectionately call termites "ant steaks". And that if there is a chance that an ant can catch a termite, it will, they like them that much. Gregorič added that the humorous title of the article should perhaps have been The Spider and the Ant in the Steakhouse. 

And to return to the scientific article and its findings: as Gregorič explains, the predatory spider and the kleptoparasitic ant appear to have a certain level of behavioral specialization for preying on termites of the genus Nasutitermes. The spider species for which this is characteristic has not yet been described. They have named it Vigdisia praesidens, after Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, the world's first democratically elected female president, who served as president of Iceland from 1980 to 1996.