Zygometis xanthogaster

Zygometis xanthogasterMilky Flower Spider (Zygometis xanthogaster)

Species Zygometis xanthogaster is a small to medium-sized crab / flower spider found in coastal woodland to semi-arid areas of Australia, including Lord Howe Island. Sometimes known as Milky Flower Spider, it is a widespread, variable in colour, usually white to off-white in colour, translucent legs and cephalothorax. The abdomen is whitish with variable brown-red markings that usually include a pair of stripes on each side of the cephalothorax.

The legs of the male have dark bands. Hiding in yellow and white flowers, or just sitting still on the leaves, the spiders ambush insects that land on the flowers.

Colour variation…

The colour variation is so great it has been described under different names, presently synonymised under Zygometis xanthogaster in the most recent major revision of Australian thomisids by Pawel Szymkowiak. The male and female have brown head stripes, the male has brown shoulder slashes, legs I and II with a brown sock distally on the femur ending diffusely in white, brown knee sock ending in a distinct white band, distal half of the tibia black and most of the metatarsi black while the tarsi are clear. The palp has the embolus wound around the outside of the ventral face and only a small part of the bluntly-peaked cymbium visible. The male has sparsely placed black hairs (setae) roughly in rows on the abdomen lean towards the rear. Megasetae gialt spine-like hairs) on the head around the eyes lean forward.

Zygometis xanthogaster (L. Koch, 1876) Milky Flower Spider, Arachne.org.au

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• Scientific classification
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Arthropoda
• Subphylum: Chelicerata
• Class: Arachnida
• Order: Araneae
• Infraorder: Araneomorphae
• Family: Thomisidae
• Genus: Zygometis
• Species: Zygometis xanthogaster

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Zygometis xanthogasterMilky Flower Spider (Zygometis xanthogaster)

ThomisidaeRuncinia acuminata Sidymella Sidymella hirsuta Tharrhalea sp Tharrhalea evanida Tharrhalea multopunctata Thomisus spectabilis Tmarus cinerasceus Xysticus bimaculatus Zygometis xanthogaster

SpidersIndex of Spider Images Spiders in Australia Araneidae — Orb Weavers Arkys Australian Huntsman Spider Barking Spider Black House Spider Carepalxis sp Celaenia sp Crab Spiders Deinopidae — Net-casting Spiders Dolomedes sp Dolophones sp Flower Spiders Hackled Orbweavers (Uloboridae) Jewel Spider Jumping Spider Long Jawed Spider (Tetragnatha sp) Lynx Spider (Oxyopes) Mangrovia albida Maratus volans Missulena occatoria (Red-headed Mouse Spider) Miturgidae Nicodamidae (Red and Black Spider) Ogre-faced Net-casting Spider Poltys sp (Twig Spider) Redback Spider Scorpion-tailed Spider (Arachnura higginsi) Thomisidae Tiger Spider (Trichonephila plumipes) White-spotted Swift Spider (Nyssus albopunctatus) Wolf Spider