Green Spider in Kauai
Location: Alakai Swamp (4000ft) Kauai, HI USA
March 2, 2012 6:06 pm
Found this spider in Kauai near Alakai swamp (4000ft) but can’t find this spider in the insects/spiders in north west america book i have.
body was about 2mm.
Signature: Toshiro Stang
Dear Toshiro,
This is a Crab Spider in the family Tomisidae. We are unable at this time to provide you with a species name. Many species in the family exhibit great variability between individuals. Your spider resembles this unidentified species we found on the Insects of Hawaii website.
It’s impossible to know for sure what the species of this spider is without seeing the male palps (the female epigynum is hard to tell apart with mecaphesa) and this doesn’t look like an adult male spider, but based on the general appearance of the spider it looks like a Mecaphesa kanakanus. According to a taxonomic key by Theodore W. Suman from Pacific Insects published back in 1970 (so old!) they did have this species of spider (back then called Misumenops vitellinus) on Kaua’i in Kokee.
Awesome. Thanks for that information.