Flower Spider - Australomisidia cruentata (previously Diaea cruentata).

Flower Spider

Australomisidia cruentata (previously Diaea cruentata).

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Other Names: Blood-Stained Flower Spider, Crab spider, Australomisidia cruentata, Diaea cruentata, Diaea bilimbatus.

Family: Thomisidae (Crab Spiders). Over 120 species in 23 genera in Australa, many more are still undescribed. About 2,100 species in 175 genera worldwide.

Size: Male body 3 mm, female body 5 mm

Distribution: Common in NSW and QLD.

Status: Common.

Habitat: They are especially common in flowers of Pultenaea species (which are bush peas with yellow flowers, sometimes called "Eggs and Bacon").

References: Whyte and Anderson.

Note that dead spiders usually fade in colour, so nearly all the spiders will look blacker or darker in colour in real life than they do in the photos of dead spiders from the museum.

Flower Spider - Australomisidia cruentata (previously Diaea cruentata).
Photo taken at Australian Museum, Sydney. High Resolution 2468 x 1712.

Flower Spider - Australomisidia cruentata (previously Diaea cruentata).
Source: Wikipedia. Public domain photo by USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab. An unknown crab spider (family Thomisidae) or perhaps running crab spider (family Philodromidae). Beltsville, Maryland, USA. High Resolution 2136 x 1884.

Recommended Reading

A Field Guide to Spiders of Australia, by Robert Whyte and Greg Anderson - Flower Spider - Australomisidia cruentata (previously Diaea cruentata). A Field Guide to Spiders of Australia, by Robert Whyte and Greg Anderson.

This is my favourite field guide to Australian spiders. It has a proper index. It has amazing photographs. If I had to find a weak point of it, it would be that there are so many photos that there is less writing than there could have been. I like photos though so it's all good. 464 pages.

From the publisher, "A Field Guide to Spiders of Australia uses photographs of live animals to enable identification of commonly encountered spiders to the family level and, in some cases, to genus and species. Featuring over 1300 colour photographs, it is the most comprehensive account of Australian spiders ever published. With more than two-thirds of Australian spiders yet to be scientifically described, this book sets the scene for future explorations of our extraordinary Australian fauna."

Purchase from Amazon.com.au (Australian Site)

See Also

Australian Mammals
Australian Birds
Australian Reptiles
Australian Frogs
Australian Fish
Australian Wild Plant Foods

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Flower Spider - Australomisidia cruentata (previously Diaea cruentata).

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