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Comments & ID Thoughts
The spider pictured here was curled up in the shirt I was about to put on. When it started running, I brought him to the bathroom, and took a second picture before sending him off to a watery grave. Am very curious what he is, and what are the chances he left a bunch of siblings behind. Thanks in advance to anyone who can identify this.
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Dec 18, 2024
- Photographed: Dec 18, 2024
- Spider: Thomisidae (Crab Spiders)
- Location: Memphis, Tennessee, United States
- Spotted Indoors: Other
- Found in web?: No
- Attributes:
Help identify this spider
Nov 17, 2019
Jul 30, 2019
Coolcotts, Wexford Town, 
This was a Flower Crab Spider in family Thomisidae. Possibly, Misumenoides formisidae. She’s displaying a very cool ability in this photo. She could shift the pigments in her body around under he chitin to match what she see. She didn’t have the correct color, but she was doing very well matching the visual texture of the fabric. This is my favorite spider species to see submitted because their range of mimicry is impressive. The default pigmentation is a whitish green spider with pink and green markings bands. They also orient the shape of their abdomen on a background, like a… Read more »
https://bugguide.net/node/view/6591 Sorry, I meant Misumenoides formosipes, I messed up the species name in my first comment. It could be a different Flower Crab Spider, I guessed this species because, in North America, it seems to be the one with the best ability to mimic visual texture.
Thank you for your detailed message. Really interesting! And it explains what was extremely puzzling to me – why did the spider look so different in the two pictures. Not just the fact it was curled up in one, but the colors were so different. Hardly seemed to be the same spider. Thanks for the link as well!
You’re very welcome! Spiders that can change their colors are really cool. The man who was the first to develop camouflage clothing for the military was from my state, New Hampshire. He got the idea from the way zebras blended in with shrubbery and small trees.