White Crab Spider (Thomisus guadahyrensis) in Amazonas, Ecuador

Photo by Tukup

Published on Project Noah

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-2.15, -77.69

Field Notes

Description:

This tiny spider (foto #4) was just under 2 cm long, 1.5 cm wide with an "armspan" of 4.5 cm. It was completely white with a few gray dots or dimples on its abdomen. I found many, many pictures of this spider on the internet, but all only called it a White/Albino Crab Spider. I couldn't find a single site that gave the scientific name. It appears to be in the genus Thomisus. I hope someone can get more "specific." The Wiki link on the right appears to show the spider, but in South Africa, not South America.

Habitat:

This spider was found scurrying along a path (700 masl) in the heat and strong sunshine of the Amazon rainforest of SE Ecuador @ 14:30 in the afternoon. Most of these small crab spiders are normally found on flowers/plants searching for small insects to eat.

Notes:

Updates to reference box show the following: The distribution of Thomisus species is almost worldwide, with the notable exception of most of South America. Only Thomisus guadahyrensis is known from South America (in Peru).

Reference Links:

Thomisus - Wikipedia, TrekNature | White crab spider Photo

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (12)

Tukup

Thanks José, I left a comment and ID suggestion on your post.

josedavidvillafuerte

Hello Tukup, I'm a resident of Quito and I have a similar looking crab spider species living in my backyard, it's in my wildlife spottings. Would you help me figure out what species it is? Or is it a new species?

Tukup

Hi Wafaa. I don't know where you are, but this specific crab spider, Thomisus guadahyrensis, is found only in our area of the Peru/Ecuador Amazon jungle, so unless you're our neighbor here, you probably saw one of the other of over 1500 species. They are pretty cool though. Glad you found one.

wafaa.aq.odd

Just found the same spider in my garden.

Tukup

Follow-up on ID. I added two new references for this spider. Also, read the notes section for explanation.

Tukup

Thanks Malcolm :-) Actually, I found 2 examples of an undiscovered snake species and the Vivarium in Quito is working on naming it after me. It will be Xenodon rabdocephalus dwainholmesii, the last being my "Latinized" name. I told them they could use "tukupii" if they wanted, but they wanted to use my real name. Your comment reminded me of that. Thanks.

Tukup

Zlatan & Mauna, there's probably a better chance of it sending word through one of its relatives, which often stop by my desk while I'm working under a light. Thanks both of you.

Malcolm Wilton-Jones

Thomisus tukupii perhaps... :-)

mauna Kunzah

Hahaha, Zlatan, great comment! Yes, Tukup, please do let us know.

Zlatan Celebic

Great one Tukup - if he or she ever writes back with the full identity, please let us know... Lovely spotting, and great colour.

Tukup

Thanks Jim. Disappointing that I can't find the species. Beautiful little critter.

Jim Nelson

Nice photography, Tukup...interesting spotting.