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Sticker of Brown flower crab spider
Bug card No. 0669 of 4,939

Brown flower crab spider

Thomisus scrupeus
Name means: “scrupeus comes from the Latin word scrupus, which means rough, because its body is so bumpy”
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSpidersGardens and meadows8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The brown flower crab spider is a crab spider from Africa that lives on bushes and trees. Its body is rough and bumpy, covered in tiny knobs. It often sits holding its strong front legs together, ready to grab a passing insect.

Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
Africa south of the Sahara, from Senegal to Kenya and South Africa, on bushes and trees
Length
3 to 8 mm (0.12 to 0.31 in)
females are bigger than males
Top speed
about 0.32 km/h (0.2 mph)
On foot, estimate
What does it eat?
It waits quietly on leaves and grabs insects with its strong front legs.
For real!Photo of Brown flower crab spider
Picture by Peter Webb. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Brown flower crab spider about 8 mm long (0.31 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
small enough to sit on your fingernailcould run across a dinner table in 11 seconds

How big is Brown flower crab spider compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The female is 7 to 8 millimetres long, while the male is only 3 to 5 millimetres.

2

Females can be off-white, yellow or orange, while males are dark brown.

3

A mother glues her white egg sac to a curved leaf and stays with it until the babies are strong enough to leave.

4

There are many more of them in summer than in the rest of the year.

5

It also lives in avocado and orange orchards.

you asked

Most asked questions about Brown flower crab spider

?Why is it called a crab spider?

Because it holds its strong front legs out like a crab and can walk sideways.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Thomisus scrupeus
Group
Spiders
Family
Thomisidae
Classification
Arachnida > Araneae > Thomisidae
Lives on
Africa
Also known as
Brown crab spider

Where the facts come from

  1. Thomisus scrupeus (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 Peter Webb. CC BY 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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