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Sticker of Ant-like crab spider
Bug card No. 0114 of 4,939

Ant-like crab spider

Amyciaea forticeps
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSpidersRainforests and jungles8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The ant-like crab spider is a small orange-yellow spider from Asia. It belongs to the crab spider family, but it is dressed up to look like an ant. People have even said it looks a bit like a jumping spider.

Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
Asia, from India and China to Malaysia
Length
4.5 mm (0.18 in)
the male
Top speed
about 0.24 km/h (0.15 mph)
On foot, estimate
What does it eat?
Like all spiders, it eats other small animals, mostly little insects.
For real!Photo of Ant-like crab spider
Picture by ManaskaMukhopadhyay. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Ant-like crab spider about 4.5 mm long (0.18 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)
small enough to sit on your fingernailcould run across a dinner table in 15 seconds

How big is Ant-like crab spider compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its eyes sit on little pale bumps on its head.

2

Its second pair of legs is a little longer than the first pair, and the third pair is the shortest of all.

3

Its back part is narrow and twice as long as its front part, which helps it look like an ant.

4

Scientists first gave it a different name in 1873 and moved it to its own group in 1895.

you asked

Most asked questions about Ant-like crab spider

?Why is it called the ant-like crab spider?

It belongs to the crab spider family, but its narrow body and long legs make it look like an ant.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Amyciaea forticeps
Named by
O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1873
Group
Spiders
Family
Thomisidae
Classification
Arachnida > Araneae > Thomisidae
Lives on
Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Amyciaea forticeps (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by ManaskaMukhopadhyay. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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More from the same group: Spiders

Also at home here: Rainforests and jungles

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