THOMISIDAE Crab spiders

Crab spiders, some also known as flower spiders, are daytime ambush hunters, common throughout Australia in most habitats, but more common in tropical and subtropical areas. Most have laterigrade legs, capable of moving sideways like a crab. They are nearly always camouflaged. Some can change colour to match flowers. Three Australian subfamilies are Stephanopinae, Thomisinae and Bominae. Stephanopinae are drab coloured, cryptic on bark. Thomisinae lack true claw tufts and have only weak cheliceral teeth. They have eight eyes arranged in two rows of four, which they can rotate independently of each other, often surrounded by white pigment and raised on small knobs or tubercles. Bominae are tiny to small spiders without strong spines on the front legs and eyes in three rows, 2 2 4. Perhaps the two most noticed Thomisids are Diaea evanida the Flower Spider and Thomisus spectabilis, the White Crab Spider.

Bominae

Stephanopinae

Thomisinae

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