Male Bark Crab Spider
2021 May 16
Continuing our run of male spiders, this male crab spider was on our house siding on June 17, 2020.
Again, he’s definitely male, as we can see from his very large boxing-glove-like pedipalps sticking out in front.
Zooming in a bit closer, we can see that they are kind of spiky.
I believe that he is a Bark Crab Spider, in the genus Bassaniana. These are crab spiders with camouflage appropriate for hiding out on a background of tree bark or leaf litter. It turns out that Michigan is right on the boundary line between two species of bark crab spider, B. utahensis and B. versicolor. So, this could be either of those species, or it could be a hybrid of the two. They apparently hybridize pretty freely in the overlap area.
One Response
Comments are closed.
Hmm. I’d name it the Fuzzy Coffee Spill Crab Spider.