Running Crab Spider species Philodromus sp
With Running Crab Spiders too the first two pairs of legs are much longer than the others. But running crab spiders hardly ever walk sidewards. Their hunting technique differs from that of the ordinary crab spiders as well. Hunting crab spiders don't just wait for their pray, they really hunt for them. They are good runners and their venom is just as poisonous as that of the ordinary crab spiders. Another striking feature of running crab spiders is that they have practically no mating ritual to perform and the actual mating is over and done with very quickly.
The running crab spiders (they are also known as Agile Crab Spiders) in Western Europe all belong to the genus Philodromus. In the Benelux alone there are not less than 17 species. Without careful microscopic study most can not be identified, as they all look alike and all species are very variable. The colour means absolutely nothing, for like all crab spiders individuals can change their colour completely within a few days.
All animals on this page are Running Crab Spiders. But you can not determine the exact species from just pictures. The animals depicted here could all belong to one and the same species. But there could be a different species in each picture as well.
