| Xysticus elegans | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Male | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: | Thomisidae |
| Genus: | Xysticus |
| Species: | X. elegans |
| Binomial name | |
| Xysticus elegans Keyserling, 1880 | |
| Synonyms | |
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Xysticus elegans, the elegant crab spider, is a species of spiders found in the United States, Canada, and Alaska.
Xysticus elegans is a medium-sized crab spider. Its body length is described as about 8-12 mm and 4-5 mm for females and males respectively. [1] [2] X. elegans is described as showing strong sexual dimorphism in size; Males in this species tend to be less than half the size of females. [1] X. elegans has a brown cephalothorax that has a lighter area, sometimes this lighter area is outlined in white. [2] It has a light tan band through the eye region and an abdomen that has brown spots outlined in white. It has brown legs.
The femora and patellae of females of this species tend to be paler than those of males, who tend to have femora and patellae that are nearly black. [2]
The Thomisidae are a family of spiders, including about 170 genera and over 2,100 species. The common name crab spider is often linked to species in this family, but is also applied loosely to many other families of spiders. Many members of this family are also known as flower spiders or flower crab spiders.
Brachypelma smithi is a species of spider in the family Theraphosidae (tarantulas) native to Mexico. It has been confused with Brachypelma hamorii; both have been called Mexican redknee tarantulas. Mexican redknee tarantulas are a popular choice as pets among tarantula keepers. Many earlier sources referring to B. smithi either relate to B. hamorii or do not distinguish between the two species. B. smithi is a terrestrial tarantula native to Pacific coast of the Mexican state of Guerrero.
Xysticus is a genus of ground crab spiders described by C. L. Koch in 1835, belonging to the order Araneae, family Thomisidae. The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek root xyst, meaning "scraped, scraper".
Misumena vatia is a species of crab spider with a holarctic distribution. In North America, it is called the goldenrod crab spider or flower (crab) spider, as it is commonly found hunting in goldenrod sprays and milkweed plants. They are called crab spiders because of their unique ability to walk sideways as well as forwards and backwards. Both males and females of this species progress through several molts before reaching their adult sizes, though females must molt more to reach their larger size. Females can grow up to 10 mm (0.39 in) while males are quite small, reaching 5 mm (0.20 in) at most. Misumena vatia are usually yellow or white or a pattern of these two colors. They may also present with pale green or pink instead of yellow, again, in a pattern with white. They have the ability to change between these colors based on their surroundings through the molting process. They have a complex visual system, with eight eyes, that they rely on for prey capture and for their color-changing abilities. Sometimes, if Misumena vatia consumes colored prey, the spider itself will take on that color.
Paroligolophus agrestis is a species of harvestman. It occurs in Europe, including the United Kingdom, and has been introduced to North America in the Pacific Northwest and Nova Scotia.
Thomisus onustus is a crab spider belonging to the genus Thomisus. These spiders are found across Europe, North Africa, and parts of the Middle East and Asia. T. onustus reside in flowers in lowland vegetation. Females are distinguished by their larger size and ability to change color between white, yellow, and pink as a means of matching flower color. This cryptic mimicry allows them to both evade predators and enhance insect prey capture abilities. Males are smaller, more slender, and drab in coloration, usually green or brown. T. onustus is also distinguished from other relatives by its distinct life cycle patterns in which spiderlings emerge in either late summer or early spring. Furthermore, T. onustus have developed a mutualistic relationship with host plants where spiders feed on and/or deter harmful florivores while benefiting from the plant's supply of pollen and nectar, which T. onustus spiders are able to use as food sources, especially during periods of low insect prey abundance.
Misumenoides formosipes is a species of crab spiders (Thomisidae), belonging to the genus Misumenoides. The species' unofficial common name is white banded crab spider, which refers to a white line that runs through the plane of their eyes. This species is a sit-and-wait predator that captures pollinators as they visit the inflorescences on which the spider sits. The spider has strong front legs which are used to seize prey. The female spider is much larger than the male. The pattern of markings on females is variable and the overall color of the body can change between white and yellow dependent on the color of their surroundings. The color pattern for males, which does not change in their lifetime, differs from females in that the four front legs of males are darker and the abdomen is gold. The spider can be found throughout the United States. Males search for sedentary females within a heterogeneous habitat and guard them until they are sexually mature to reproduce.
Darwin's bark spider is an orb-weaver spider that produces the largest known orb webs, ranging from 900 to 28,000 square centimetres, with bridge lines spanning up to 25 metres (82 ft). The spider was discovered in Madagascar in the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park in 2009. Its silk is the toughest biological material ever studied. Its tensile strength is 1.6 GPa. The species was named in honour of the naturalist Charles Darwin on November 24, 2009—precisely 150 years after the publication of The Origin of Species.
Pugettia producta, known as the northern kelp crab or shield-backed kelp crab, is a species of crab in the family Epialtidae.
Tegenaria abchasica is a spider species found in Russia and Georgia.
Sepia elegans, the elegant cuttlefish, is a species of cuttlefish in the family Sepiidae from the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. It is an important species for fisheries in some parts of the Mediterranean where its population may have suffered from overfishing.
Xysticus cristatus, the common crab spider, is a European spider from the family Thomisidae.
Xysticus ulmi, the swamp crab spider, is a European crab spider of the family Thomisidae which prefers damp habitats. It was first described by the German zoologist Carl Wilhelm Hahn in 1831.
Nigorella aethiopica is the type species of the genus Nigorella. A jumping spider that lives in Ethiopia and named in honour of the country in which it is found, it was first described in 2008 by Wanda Wesołowska and Beata Tomasiewicz. The spider is larger than others in the species with a cephalothorax that is between 4.1 and 4.8 mm long and an abdomen that is between 4.3 and 5.6 mm long. The carapace is generally brown and hairy, although the male is darker. While the male abdomen is marked by a light stripe on the topside and dots underneath, the female abdomen has a pattern of a light stripe and patches on the top and dark stripes on the bottom. As well as the larger size, there is a split at the end of the appendage on the pedipalp tibia that marks out the male, and the female has longer seminal ducts and thinner spermathecae than others in the genus.
Bacelarella gibbosa is a species of jumping spider in the genus Bacelarella that is endemic to Nigeria. The spider has a distinctive shape to the carapace that gives the species its name, which can be translated hunchback. It was first described in 2012 by Wanda Wesołowska and Glavis Edwards. The spider is medium-sized with a cephalothorax that has a length between 3.1 and 3.8 mm and an abdomen that is between 2.6 and 3.4 mm long. The female is larger than the male. It is also generally lighter in colour, the male having a darker brown carapace, clypeus and legs. The species can be distinguished from others in the species by the male's round small palpal bulb and long thin embolus and the larger pocket in the female's epigyne.
Tliltocatl schroederi is a species of spiders in the family Theraphosidae (tarantulas), found in Mexico. It is found in the central valley in Oaxaca State, Mexico.
Aelurillus dubatolovi is a species of jumping spider in the genus Aelurillus that lives in Central Asia. First identified in 2003 in Turkmenistan, it has a distribution that extends from Caspian Sea to Lake Balkhash and includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The spider itself is small, the male being smaller than the female, with a carapace measuring between 3.1 and 3.6 mm in length and an abdomen between 2.9 and 4.1 mm long. The carapace is dark brown, with long hairs along the side that distinguish the species from the similar Aelurillus brutus and Aelurillus lutosus. It also has a hairy clypeus and palpal femora, which enables it to be identified as not being the otherwise similar Aelurillus ater. The female has a net-like pattern on the abdomen. This is clearer on examples found towards the northeast of the species distribution. The spiders found towards the northeast are also smaller, lighter and less hairy, but these are insufficient differences to identify them as a different species.
Mecaphesa celer, known generally as the swift crab spider, is a species of crab spider in the family Thomisidae. Its range is quite large, and it is found throughout much of North and Central America.
Cladomelea debeeri is a species of spider in the orb-weaver spider family Araneidae, found in South Africa. It was first described in 2004. Cladomelea species, including C. debeeri, are "bolas spiders" – adult females capture their prey by using one or more sticky drops on the end of a line which they swing, usually catching male moths attracted by the release of an analogue of the attractant sex pheromone produced by the female moth. Juvenile and adult male bolas spiders do not use a bolas, catching prey with their legs alone.
Parabomis wandae is a species of crab spider in the genus Parabomis that lives in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya and Rwanda. The species was first described in 2020 by Ansie Dippenaar-Schoeman and Stefan Foord. It thrives in rainforests. The spider is very small, with a total length between 1.9 and 2.26 mm. The female is larger and lighter in colour than the male. It has a distinctive hump to the abdomen, which for the female is less pronounced. The female abdomen has dark patches and spots on its white surface, while the male has a brown shell. The species can be differentiated from other members of the genus by its copulatory organs. The male has a distinctive beak-like end of the retrolateral tibial apophysis. The female has an egg-shaped epigyne with long copulatory ducts.
Media related to Xysticus elegans at Wikimedia Commons