Eurasian green crab spider

Eurasian green crab spider (Diaea dorsata)
German name: Grüne Krabbenspinne

Web: Crab spiders don’t make catching webs, but use their elongated first and second legs to overpower their prey. They are sit and wait predators, often well camouflaged and laying in an ambush to surprise passing prey.

Habitat: on leaves of bushes and trees.

How to recognize:

• lightly coloured abdomen with clearly delineated dark figure in the shape of a leaf. Lighter spots in leaf figure (sometimes absent)
• ♀: cephalothorax and legs light green
• ♂: cephalothorax yellow to green, first two leg pairs with dark bands.

Looks similar to:

• Triangle crab spider, but the dark drawing on the back of the abdomen has a different shape (often an incomplete triangle).

Size

♀: 5-7 mm

♂: 3-4 mm

When?

♀: May till June

♂: May till June