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Species Misumenoides formosipes - Whitebanded Crab Spider

BG2424 C4944 - Misumenoides formosipes - female Whitebanded Crab Spider - Misumenoides formosipes - male Crab Spider - Misumenoides formosipes - female Crab Spider - Misumenoides formosipes Whitebanded Crab Spider with Prey - Misumenoides formosipes Misumenoides? - Misumenoides formosipes Misumenoides formosipes? - Misumenoides formosipes Crab Spider id  - Misumenoides formosipes - 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 Misumenoides
Species formosipes (Whitebanded Crab Spider)
Other Common Names
Red banded crab spider (see San Diego site, below).
Ridge-faced flower spider (see Missouri Dept of Conservation site, below).
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Originally described by Walckenaer in 1837 as Thomisus formosipes
The species name is also often spelled with a c, formocipes.
Many sources consider M. aleatorius (Hentz) to be a synonym. Others consider it a species in its own right.
Explanation of Names
Misumenoides formosipes (Walckenaer, 1837)
formosipes (L). "beautiful" + "foot or leg"
Identification
The identifying characteristic, according to Florida's Fabulous Spiders, is a white ridge on the spider's face below the eyes. Can be either white or yellow. Most sources say this is a response to its surroundings, but I did find one claim that color depended on whether the egg was laid on a yellow or white-flowered plant. See here for brief description of this theory.

Some closeups of facial images to aid in identification:

Misumessus:

ALEs larger than AMEs.

Misumena:
All four anterior (front) eyes are about the same size. When viewed from the front, and a little above, it seems all eight eyes are visible and form a crescent shape. The lateral eyes are on tubercles, but the posterior laterals are visible. See



Misumenoides:
All four anterior (front) eyes are about the same size. When viewed from the front, and a little above, only six eyes are visible. The posterior laterals are facing sideways and are on the ends of a long horizontal transverse ridge across the face. Eric says "Misumena has essentially no black markings (while Misumenoides may have some), which is how you can tell them apart in the field most easily." See



Mecaphesa:
The anterior lateral eyes are a little larger than the anterior median eyes. When viewed from the front, and a little above, only six eyes are visible. The posterior laterals are facing sideways and backwards on tubercles that include the anterior laterals. Mecaphesa is also often (always?) hairy. See



Comments, corrections, and suggestions most welcome. Please add them to discussion thread here.

Images by Tom Adams, Troy Bartlett, Derrick Ditchburn, Tony DiTerlizzi, Bill DuPree, Vincent J Hickey, Richard Leung, Paul F Wagner, Paul McNelis, Bill Claff, and Chris Wirth
Range
Widespread
Habitat
Its preferred lurking spot is in and around flowers.
Food
An ambush predator. It will attack and eat just about any creature that comes close enough- even some that are larger than it is.

Males have been observed feeding on flower nectar.
Remarks
Females come in quite a variety of colors:






Mature males are smaller and quite dissimilar to females:
A pair:



While subadult males are different yet:
See Also
Misumena, Mecaphesa and other species of Misumenoides mostly look very similar.
Print References
Florida's Fabulous Spiders (1)
Works Cited
1.Florida's Fabulous Spiders
Sam Marshall, G. B. Edwards. 2002. World Publications.