Crab Spider

Description:

Thomisidae; Thomisus okinawensis Strand, 1907. This spider appears to have a liking for Leafhopper nymphs. In These photos you can see the spider having a feast. It appears to hold its prey with its pedipalps acting as hands. The tiny hopper nymph is held to the spider's mouth, orientated headfirst. Then the spider sucks out the innards and discards the empty carcases. The nymphs don't appear to be aware of the danger as there was no apparent attempt to flee. In fact they almost seem to be waiting in line. I am not certain, but I think that the nymphs are Idioscopus sp. (possibly I. nitidulus or I. clypealis). If you enlarge the 5th photo, you will see (behind the spider) several empty shells of the nymphs it has eaten and discarded. The last photo has a much wider view to show that there very many nymphs hanging around, almost as if they are waiting their turn to be eaten.

Habitat:

This crab spider was spotted in our vegetable plot on a leaf of Corn (Zea mays). Plant identification - http://www.stuartxchange.org/Mais.html

Notes:

When I was preparing my photos and notes for this spotting, I looked, as I usually do, at other Project Noah spottings to get some ideas and to insert some references here. I didn't have to do too much searching. Here are some good ones (all from the same spotter !) - https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/30... https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/35... https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/14... https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/14...