Categories

Crab Spiders

Tags

food chain

misumenoides formosipes eats butterfly
Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 10:46 AM
Hi,
I found this crab spider at my aunt’s house in central Oklahoma last summer. I’m pretty sure it’s misumenoides formosipes, but I’m not positive. I hope you guys enjoy the pictures. Thanks for the great site!
Josh Kouri
Oklahoma City, Ok

Hi Josh,
We believe you have correctly identified your spider as Misumenoides formosipes, the White Banded Crab Spider.  This is a highly variable species and simply perusing some of the images submitted to BugGuide will reveal the many color variations.  It is not true that Crab Spiders can change their coloration with their surroundings.  What is more likely is that the offspring that match the color of the surroundings are more likely to survive to adulthood.  At any rate, your photo nicely illustrates how closely a Crab Spider is capable of matching its surroundings, and how effective this is in capturing prey.  It appears the butterfly in your photo is a Skipper.

Related Posts

1. Crab Spider eats Skipper (October 15, 2006)
2. Crab Spider (September 11, 2007)
3. Crab Spider (April 23, 2007)
4. Crab Spider (September 14, 2008)
5. Crab Spider Eats Gulf Fritillary (September 28, 2008)