Whitebanded Crab Spider

Crab spiders have legs that stretch forth from the sides and can travel in any direction, just like crabs. The majority of them dwell in flowers and get prey by simply grasping and biting them. The white-banded crab spider is tiny and yellowish-brown in color. It has a somewhat greenish carapace with a broad whitish-yellow mid-band surrounded by darker, narrower yellowish-brown sides. Its eyes may be reddened, and its legs are all cream in hue. An abdomen with no markings is not uncommon, although it is more commonly characterized by a brownish-yellow V that converges toward the carapace and is made up of numerous spots or stripes.

This spider, like a chameleon, changes color to fit in with its environment. Thousands of tiny crab spiderlings hide among spring and summer blooms, preparing to use their muscular forelegs to catch insects. Because of a faint white or yellowish ridge on the spider's tiny "face," below its eight eyes, this species is sometimes dubbed the ridge-faced flower spider. The second popular name for this ridge is "white banded," since it is frequently white.

Scientific Name: Misumenoides Formosipes
Distribution: United States
Size: 0.2 inches to 0.44 inches