Crab Spider

Description:

Thomididae; Thomisinae; Runcinia insecta C. L. Koch, 1875. I was slightly confused when trying to ID this spider. This was before I joined Project Noah, but I used to look at P.N. spottings to help with ID's. I saw a similar spider to mine on https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/11... which called the spider Runcinia albostriata, which was right. But then I saw a French website http://www.dipode-vie.net/Arachnides/Tho... which had wonderful pictures shown as R. insecta. The explanation offered was "Cette espèce montre une fine ligne blanche sur le céphalothorax et l'abdomen qui lui a donné le nom de albostriata qu'elle a longtemps porté avant de reprendre le nom de sa première description." I don't remember much of my schoolboy French, but I translated it roughly as "This species displays a fine white line on the cephalothorax and abdomen which gave it the name albostriata which it held for a long time before reverting to the name in its original description" - obviously referring to Runcinia insecta C. L. Koch, 1875. Problem solved.

Habitat:

This Crab Spider was spotted on Corn (Zea mays) in our vegetable plot.

Notes:

Plant identification - http://www.stuartxchange.org/Mais.html Amazing Pictures - http://www.dipode-vie.net/Arachnides/Tho...