Xysticus ephippiatus is a crab spider of Central and East Asia, including Korea and Japan, and isn't found in the US. Rather than spinning a web, it wanders around hunting for prey. It's yellowish brown to dark brown, with a broad dark brown stripe down each side of the front body section.
Appearance
- Appearance
- Females are 0.28–0.51 in (7–13 mm) long and males 0.24–0.31 in (6–8 mm). The female's front body section is yellowish with white flecks and a broad dark brown stripe on each side. The abdomen is tan to dark brown with white lengthwise lines. Males are darker overall than females and have a U-shaped mark in the middle of the front body section.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Forests and hills
- Farmland
- Riversides
- Coastal dunes
- Cities
- Range
- Kazakhstan and the rest of Central Asia, Russia, Mongolia, China, Korea, and Japan. It isn't part of the North American fauna.
- Preferred conditions
- In Korea it turns up almost anywhere: forests, rice paddies and crop fields, stream banks, lakeshores, coastal dunes, and city areas.
Behavior
- Activity
- A wandering hunter that doesn't build a web. In Korea, it's seen from May to September.
Name and classification
- About the name
- In older papers this spider's name was sometimes applied by mistake to a similar species, Xysticus croceus. Today the two are treated as separate species.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
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