Milky Flower Spider
S1, White Dorsal
Ellura
Milky Flower Spider
S1, Ventral
 
                      
Milky Flower Spider (Zygometis xanthogaster)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Spiders, Scorpions, Mites & Ticks (Arachnida)
Order: Spiders (Araneae)
Family: Crab Spider (Thomisidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Milky Flower Spider (Zygometis xanthogaster)
This Photo:     🔍S1, Profile🔎

Thank you Suzanne and Jim & Dee Petersen for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Adelaide Hills, the Flinders Ranges and elsewhere
They are very variable with the specimen we found on Ellura being the yellow form. The name actually translates to: xanthogaster->(xanthos = "yellow") + (gaster = "belly"). It also makes sense as were millions of small yellow forbs flowering at the time it was found. Notice the one we found in the Adelaide Hills was white, under a white flower. Unusually the white one had no stripes at all (on the legs or carapace). Often the leg stripes are black.
The yellow one was a very small female, ~4.5mm long (body & head), while the white one was a larger female ~7mm.

Copyright © 2017-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 06-Dec-2017
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.