American green crab spider
This pale green crab spider blends into the leaves it hunts from, and short spines on its legs are often the easiest way to tell it apart from similar species.
| Where | Prairies, fields and open woodlands |
|---|---|
| Size | Female 4.5 to 6.4 mm, male about 2.5 mm body length |
| When | May to September |
The American green crab spider is small, with a pale to bright green cephalothorax and legs and a white or pale yellow abdomen that sometimes shows red marks along the sides. Males are smaller than females and carry short spines on the abdomen that females mostly lack.
It hunts by sitting motionless on flowers or foliage in prairies, fields and open woodlands, grabbing visiting insects with its front legs rather than trapping them in a web. Found across the eastern United States, southern Canada and into northern Mexico, adults are active from late spring into late summer, and females fold over a leaf edge with silk to guard their egg sac.
Traits
Habitat
Grassland
Colour
Green, White, Red
Active
Day and night
To people
This small crab spider is not known to bite people and can safely be left in the garden, where it helps control small flies and other insects.
Activity through the year
Often confused with
Has a hairy, spiny carapace and is usually white, pale pink or tan, never the smooth, plain green body of the American green crab spider.
Questions
Is the American green crab spider dangerous to people?
This small crab spider is not known to bite people and can safely be left in the garden, where it helps control small flies and other insects.
When can you see the American green crab spider?
The American green crab spider can be seen from May to September, by day and at night.
Plate retouched from a photo by Ilona, CC BY‑SA 4.0, iNaturalist Licence
The plate on this page is shared under the same licence as its source, CC BY-SA.
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Spiders›Crab spiders›Misumessus
Last updated 2026-09-27. Every entry is checked against published sources.