Pink Crab Spider

Thomisus onustus

"Thomisus onustus" is a crab spider species in the genus "Thomisus" belonging to the family Thomisidae.
Crab Spider "Thomisus onustus" I found this kind of spider recently inside some white flowers. It's incredible how they hide inside the flower waiting for insects to come for the pólen and then make their hunting move! 
This one is a female, females can change between 3 colours to camouflage in the flowers :-D European,Geotagged,Portugal,Summer,Thomisus onustus,fly,spider

Appearance

This species shows an extreme sexual dimorphism both in size and coloration, also in comparison with other crab spiders. The adult males reach a body length of only 2–4 millimetres, while females are 7–10 millimetres long. This species is characterized by the prominent rear corners of the opisthosoma.

In males the basic colour of the prosoma varies from yellow brown to dark brown, the opisthosoma may be yellow and green or brown. Also females are very variable in colour, their basic colour can be white, yellow or pink.

As a matter of fact these crab-spiders hide themselves adapting the colour of their body to the colour of the flowers on which they are waiting for preys, a behaviour that conceal them from predators and from the pollinating preys.
Thomisus onustus - Pink  Araneae,Geotagged,La Palma (Canary Islands),Spain,Thomisidae,Thomisus,Thomisus onustus,nl: Bloemkrabspin

Distribution

It has a Palearctic distribution from Great Britain and Portugal in the West to Japan in the East. It is present in most countries of Europe, but it is absent in Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Denmark and Finland. North-south distribution extends from Sweden to South Africa and from Siberia to Central Java, including temperate and tropical ecozone.
White flower crab spider - Thomisus onustus When I was photographing chasing the butterfly (Scarce swallowtail - Iphiclides podalirius), I didn't notice this lovely spider at all. I was shooting with a larger lens from a distance of about 3 m. Now reviewing the photos on the computer, I saw this scene. Apparently, the butterfly was lucky that the spider had already caught its prey and did not pay attention to it. Animalia,Arachnida,Araneae,Arthropoda,Central Macedonia,Europe,Flower crab spider,Geotagged,Greece,Insecta,Iphiclides podalirius,Lepidoptera,Nea Irakleia,Papilionidae,Papilionoidea,Pink Crab Spider,Scarce swallowtail,Summer,Swallowtail butterfly,Thomisidae

Habitat

These spiders prefer warm temperatures, forest-free areas, dry and sandy habitats with high solar radiation and dry grasslands.

References:

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