Milky Flower Spider
S1, Female, ventral
Ellura
Venomless Spider
Male, dorsal, ~2.5mm
 
                      
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:     🔍S4, Female, ventral🔎

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
Females ~4.5mm to ~7mm long (body & head).
They are very variable with the first specimen we found on Ellura (S2) being the yellow form.
The name actually translates to: xanthogaster->(xanthos = "yellow") + (gaster = "belly"). It also makes sense as there were millions of small yellow forbs flowering at the time it was found. Notice S1 was white, under a white flower. Unusually S1 had no stripes at all (on the legs or carapace). Often the leg stripes are black. S4, also from Ellura, was also white, but with more striping.

Copyright © 2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 21-Oct-2024
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.