Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Species Mecaphesa asperata - Northern Crab Spider

Crab Spider - Mecaphesa asperata - female Northern Crab Spider - Dorsal - Mecaphesa asperata Mecaphesa asperata? - Mecaphesa asperata - male Mecaphesa asperatus (Misumenops) - Mecaphesa asperata - male northern crab spider - Mecaphesa asperata - female Mecaphesa asperata Northern Crab Spider - Lateral  - Mecaphesa asperata northern crab spider - Mecaphesa asperata - male
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Chelicerata (Chelicerates)
Class Arachnida (Arachnids)
Order Araneae (Spiders)
Infraorder Araneomorphae (True Spiders)
No Taxon (Entelegynae)
Family Thomisidae (Crab Spiders)
Genus Mecaphesa
Species asperata (Northern Crab Spider)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Mecaphesa asperata (Hentz, 1847)

Misumenops asperatus (Hentz, 1847) -- see Lehtinen, P. T. & Y. M. Marusik, 2008.
Size
Male: total length approx. 3.3 mm; female generally smaller than M. vatia: approx. 5.5 mm. (Dondale & Redner, 1978b)
Identification
Dorsum of abdomen off-white with two pairs of longitudinal red bands or rows of spots, sometimes with lateral red band anteriad (Dondale & Rednder, 1978b) --- a "capped" V, with the point of the V at the end of the somewhat angular abdomen (Wikipedia, accessed 09-Jan-2011); legs yellowish or off-white, banded distally red or brown; femora spotted.


Palp

Epigynum
Range
New Mexico to Florida, northward to British Columbia, Quebec, and Massachusetts. (Dondale & Redner, 1978b)