Misumenops? - male - Misumena vatia

Moved

… Lynette Elliott, 25 May, 2009 - 10:40am

From Rod Crawford:

This is almost certainly just a paler than usual colored M.vatia.
Perhaps recently molted when photographed. The closeup of the abdomen
(277134) shows none of the long setae found in Misumenops. The clypeus
should have had a distinct transverse white ridge if Misumenoides.

… Lynette Elliott, 25 May, 2009 - 10:39am

Thanks for all your help, Lynnette.

:-P)

… Phil Huntley-Franck, 25 May, 2009 - 1:09pm

Hmmm...

We have had some problems IDing some of the western Misumenops that don't have the obvious more hairy carapace. I'm going to move this out to Family for now.

The best thing to do in this case is to get some close-ups of the male palp and the female epigynum. If you could get some shots of the male and female together too, that would be great.

… Lynette Elliott, 19 May, 2009 - 4:34pm

Palp

Ive added a closer view of the palps. It's the best I could do with what I have on hand. Hope it helps.

As for getting additional shots of this fellow (with or without his girlfriend(s)), I'll do what I can. First, however, I must ask, are crab spiders territorial? If so, since I often spend an hour or three a day searching the yard for bugs, it shouldn't be too hard to find him again, either on or under a "home" leaf in his blackberry patch. Either way, we always seem to have an abundance of crab spiders and the blackberries should start flowering any day - I've yet to see an insect magnet better than a patch of flowering or berry-laden Himalayan Blackberries, especially if interlaced with non-spiny thistle.

:-P)

… Phil Huntley-Franck, 19 May, 2009 - 9:42pm

Yes territorial

I have found them to stay in the same area for an entire season. Unfortunately, I think this is a juvenile male, which means the palps aren't formed enough for ID purposes. I'm going to send it on to Rod in any case for his opinion.

… Lynette Elliott, 19 May, 2009 - 10:22pm

Moved

Moved from Misumenops.

Misumenops have a hairy carapace. This is more likely a male Goldenrod Crab Spider. It's probably better if you post your images to Family or Genus if you aren't sure of the species ID. If we get super busy we might miss them being placed incorrectly.

Nice shots, btw.

… Lynette Elliott, 19 May, 2009 - 9:26am

Not Misumenoides?

With coloration like that, I would think Misumenoides is a better fit. Perhaps subadult Misumena do have banding on the legs and carapace, but I'm not familiar with such a case....

… Eric R. Eaton, 19 May, 2009 - 11:26am

I'm pretty sure

(never positive given all the things I know I don't know :)

I based this move on this image & comments:

I think male Misumenoides tend to be much more strange looking like:

… Lynette Elliott, 19 May, 2009 - 2:43pm

Greetings Lynette and Eric,

I added a new image to this post. It is a 100% crop with no resizing which shows what I believe to be tiny hairs on the abdomen and the middle of the thorax. It was based on those hairs, which unfortunately did not show up on the original resized images, that I though it might be Misumenops.

As for the 4 front legs, the male Golden Rods I've seen in my yard show them as brown with faint cream colored bands, and Misumenops males I've seen appear to have the opposite - 4 light colored front legs with dark brown bands.

Of course, given my record for proper IDs, you can probably disregard my reasoning.

Cheers,

:-P)

PS - Thanks for the comment on the shots, Lynette. New camera, still have a lot to learn about proper exposure.

… Phil Huntley-Franck, 19 May, 2009 - 4:04pm