Crab Spider

Description:

In most species females are four to ten mm long, with males two to seven mm. Many are brightly colored, usually matching the color of the flower in which they are waiting in ambush. Not all species are flower-dwelling, but among those that are, at least some species can change their colour over a period of some days to match the flower colour,Studies suggest that bees are inclined to avoid a flower that contains a spider-sized object of a non-matching colour; whether this is specifically a mechanism for avoiding crab spiders, or simply that they are not attracted to flowers whose nectar guides are obscured however, is a more difficult question. The colour changes that such species can achieve are typically in ranges of white, pink, and yellow.

Habitat:

The distribution of Thomisus species is almost worldwide, with the notable exception of most of South America[4].The world spider catalog Although Thomisus species can be found almost anywhere on earth, most species occur in the tropics and the warmer regions of the Old World, with fewer species in the region from New Guinea to Australia and the New World. Only T. guadahyrensis is known from South America, and only in Peru.

Notes:

Thomisus is a genus of crab spiders (family Thomisidae) with more than 100 species described. The genus includes species that vary widely in their ecology, but the best known crab spiders are those species that people call the flower crab spiders, because they are ambush predators that feed on insects visiting flowers. The flower crab spiders are the species for which the popular name was coined, because of their crab-like motion and their way of holding their front legs in an attitude reminiscent of a crab spreading its claws as a threat.