Mecaphesa asperata, the northern crab spider, is a species of crab spider in the family Thomisidae, found in North and Central America, and the Caribbean.

[1] It is a species of the 'flower spiders', so-called because they generally hunt in similarly coloured flowers for visitors such as bees and flies, and is a much smaller nearctic relative of the better-known Goldenrod Spider (Misumena vatia).

[6][1] Howell (2004) provides the following diagnostic/identifying characteristics: "M. asperatus is distinguished from Misumenoides and Misumena in that the carapace, abdomen and legs are distinctively covered with numerous short stiff spines.

On the anterior half, the abdomen has red streaks laterally.

All legs are yellow, except the tibia and metatarsus I bear red annuli.