Found on a spiderwort plant with no visible web.
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May 18, 2019
May 5, 2019
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May 10, 2019May 10, 20195 Comments
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May 11, 2019May 11, 2019
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May 1, 2019Apr 21, 20192 Comments
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Help identify this spider
Bloomington,
Hi, this is a Crab Spider (Thomisidae) in the genus Mecaphesa.
Hey, I recently revisited this spider and was wondering about how you were able to classify it as a crab spider? Is it because of the way they hold their legs/walk? Also, it looks like my spider only has 6 legs in the photo. Is it possible it lost 2 or are they tucked somewhere else? ie, pressed flush against the other legs.
A lot of it is the crab-like legs, though there are other families that are crab-like and sometimes have common names with “crab” in them … Philodromidae (Running Crab Spiders), Sparassidae (Giant Crab Spiders), Sicariidae (Six-eyed Crab Spiders), Selenopidae (Flat Crab Spiders), they all have significant other differences from each other though … I think your spider is missing legs. Immature spiders can grow back legs but once they stop molting if they lose a leg they’re gone for good. They can voluntarily discard legs to save themselves (it’s called “autotomy”). I can determine the genus as Mecaphesa because it’s… Read more »