Crested Crab Spider

• It walks sideways and backwards as readily as forwards, which is where the name crab spider comes from.
• Before mating, the male ties the female to the substrate with a few threads of silk, a bridal veil she breaks through without difficulty afterwards.
• It is the commonest ground-dwelling crab spider in Europe, brown and mottled, camouflaged on soil and leaf litter rather than on flowers like the goldenrod crab spider.
• Before mating, the male ties the female to the substrate with a few strands of silk, the so-called bridal veil. It does not really pin her down — she frees herself easily afterwards — and it seems to work more as a signal than as a restraint.
• It walks sideways, like the rest of the crab spiders, and grips its prey with the first two pairs of legs.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (arachnid)

Habitat and environment

Meadows, tall grassland and leaf litter of Europe

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Xysticus cristatus