---
title: "Northern Crab Spider"
description: "Mecaphesa asperata — Insecten en spinnen. Mecaphesa asperata, the northern crab spider, is a species of crab spider in the family Thomisidae, found in North and Central America, and the Caribbean."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/nl/animal/northern-crab-spider
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Northern Crab Spider

> Mecaphesa asperata — Insecten en spinnen. Mecaphesa asperata, the northern crab spider, is a species of crab spider in the family Thomisidae, found in North and Central America, and the Caribbean.

- Scientific name: *Mecaphesa asperata*
- Category: `insects` (Insecten en spinnen)
- Habitats: unknown
- iNaturalist observations: 10106
- Wikidata: [Q2700004](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2700004)
- iNaturalist taxon: [224488](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/224488)

## Names

- en: Northern Crab Spider
- es: Araña cangrejo norteña

## Countries with the most observations

US (4023), CA (794)

## Summary

Mecaphesa asperata, the northern crab spider, is a species of crab spider in the family Thomisidae, found in North and Central America, and the Caribbean. It is a species of the 'flower spiders', so-called because they generally hunt in similarly coloured flowers for visitors such as bees and flies, and is a much smaller nearctic relative of the better-known Goldenrod Spider (Misumena vatia).
Mecaphesa asperata was formerly in the genus Misumenops under the name Misumenops asperatus.
Howell (2004) provides the following diagnostic/identifying characteristics: "M. asperatus is distinguished from Misumenoides and Misumena…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecaphesa_asperata

## Photo

![Northern Crab Spider](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/northern-crab-spider/medium.jpg)

Photo: Brighton Lee · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/320784691

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/northern-crab-spider?lang=nl` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).