Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Crab spider / Aranha Caranguejo

Thomisidae

Description:

Crab spider is a common name applied loosely to many species of spiders.

Habitat:

None of the crab spiders mentioned build webs to trap prey, though all of them produce silk for drop lines and sundry reproductive purposes; some are wandering hunters and the most widely known are ambush predators. Some species sit on or beside flowers or fruit, where they grab visiting insects. Individuals of some species, such as Misumena vatia, are able to change color over a period of some days, to match the flower on which they are sitting. Some species frequent promising positions among leaves or bark, where they await prey, and some of them will sit in the open, where they are startlingly good mimics of bird droppings.

Notes:

Spider in a Sunflower, Pic from my garden.

1 Species ID Suggestions

Crab Spider
Mecaphesa Genus


Sign in to suggest organism ID

7 Comments

Ricardo Salgueiro
Ricardo Salgueiro 11 years ago

Absolutely right SpiderJoe thanks :)

SpiderJoe
SpiderJoe 11 years ago

Definitely a crab spider though, Thomisidae.

SpiderJoe
SpiderJoe 11 years ago

Beautiful spider, but not Mecaphesa, which doesn't have the pointy-sided abdomen.

Ricardo Salgueiro
Ricardo Salgueiro 11 years ago

Thanks LarryGraziano! By your past photos I doubt I be disappointed :)

LarryGraziano
LarryGraziano 11 years ago

Great shot! Thanks for following me. I hope I live up to your expectations. Welcome to Project Noah!!!!!!!!!!

Ricardo Salgueiro
Ricardo Salgueiro 11 years ago

Thanks for the ID!

AntónioGinjaGinja
AntónioGinjaGinja 11 years ago

Gorgeous spotting Ricardo congratulations

p.s.normalmente o pessoal agradece a identificação:)é uma maneira fixe de dar valor ao identificador e ao mesmo tempo a tua foto volta a aparecer sempre que há um comentário :)

Ricardo Salgueiro
Spotted by
Ricardo Salgueiro

Portugal

Spotted on Jul 25, 2011
Submitted on Jul 6, 2012

Related Spottings

crab spider Crab spider Crab Spider Spotting

Nearby Spottings

Spotting Ornate Shield Bug Flesh-fly Geranium Bronze
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team