crab spider

Description:

Thomisidae is a family of spiders. The common name crab spider is often applied to species in this family, but is also applied loosely to many other species of spiders. Among the Thomisidae crab spider refers most often to the familiar species of "flower crab spiders", though not all members of the family are limited to ambush hunting in flowers.

Notes:

Behavior[edit] Thomisidae do not 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. However, note that these members of the family Thomisidae are not to be confused with the spiders that generally are called bird dropping spiders, not all of which are close relatives of crab spiders.