Crab Spiders

Today, while my daughter had a training session, I had an hour to walk at Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve in Savage. Because of the weather—cold, overcast, windy—very few people were out and nearly all that were ran dogs in the dog park. I had the trails to myself. A few geese on the lake, a few chickadees in the trees, other than that not much going on. I had to resort to lifting bark.

Examining a small dead tree, still standing but with most of its bark fallen away, I found a Running Crab Spider stuck flat against the inner side of one of the remaining sections of bark, flat as a wall-hanging. Under the bark of fallen tree, I found a bark crab spider. This spider was so cryptic and so flat I wasn't certain it was alive. Small, dark, and stout it resemble, almost, a dog tick.

Running Crab Spiders, family Philodromidae, are recognized by the longest legs being the second pair of legs. The Crab Spiders, family Thomisidae, the first two pairs of legs are of nearly equal length. Spiders from both families have been given the name of crab spiders because their flat bodies and wide-spread appendages resemble the sidling posture and form of ocean crabs.

Posted on March 23, 2017 02:50 AM by