Whitebanded crab spider
The whitebanded crab spider is a little spider that sits very still on flowers. It has a thin white line across its face, below its eyes. The female can slowly change colour between white and yellow to match the flower she is sitting on.
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Fun facts
It does not build a web. Instead it uses flowers as a hiding place and waits for its food to land.
It is called a crab spider because its body and strong front legs look a bit like a crab.
Changing from white to yellow takes the female more than three days, and changing back takes even longer.
The male is tiny next to the female. He finds her by following the smell of the flowers.
The mother lays up to 180 eggs in a silk bag and guards it for the rest of her life.
Most asked questions about Whitebanded crab spider
?How big is a whitebanded crab spider?
The female is about 5 to 11 millimetres long. The male is much smaller, only about 3 millimetres.
?Can crab spiders change colour?
Yes. The female can change between white and yellow to match her flower, but it takes a few days.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Misumenoides formosipes
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Thomisidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Thomisidae
- Lives on
- North America, South America
- Also known as
- White banded crab spider
Where the facts come from
- Misumenoides formosipes (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Judy Gallagher. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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