[5] The Australian crab spider is mostly a suburban or urban animal found in Eastern Australia, and their habitat is among white and yellow daisies.

The colorful bodies allow spiders to reflect UV-light in a manner that attracts bees to their flower.

They have small black eyes that are organized into a white band across the head resembling a mask.

The Thomisus clade of the Australian crab spider has the following morphological similarities: circular scopula hairs, subequal bulbus, disc shaped tegulum, a sperm duct with a spherical, peripheral course, no conductor, and no median apophysis.

[8] Australian crab spiders choose habitats that increase their chances of catching prey.

Due to the importance of contrast with flowers, these spiders cannot simply choose habitats with large numbers of its prey.

[6] It is most commonly found in tropical or subtropical areas, but some also prefer white clothing lines.

Some examples of these insects are crickets, drosophila flies, and pollinators such as honey bees and butterflies.

The spiders are an important form of pest control as they protect the flowers they inhabit from attack by insects.

The energy obtained from consuming these insects allows the adult female Australian crab spider to produce a clutch of eggs.

[4] They will use fallen leaves or live foliage to hide their bodies, which are easy to camouflage due to its color in order to ambush their prey.

[7] The mechanism of deceit for Australian crab spiders involves influencing and exploiting signal communication between pollinators and plants.

Honeybees specifically are more attracted to flowers with certain odors (implying high nectar reward), colors, and symmetrical patterns.

The Australian crab spider uses the same combination of visual and olfactory cues to attract bees towards the flower they are sitting on.

Bees and Australian crab spiders are both drawn to symmetry, and this leads both the predator and prey to come together at the same flowers.

The white crab spider's preference for symmetry, along with olfactory cues, draws it to hide among flowers and ambush honeybees as they arrive.

When the Australian crab spider is in its white body state, it is able to reflect UV light.

This temporal variation is correlated with the spiders adopting strategies switching between low and high conspicuousness.

This is in stark contrast to other spider species, such as Misumena vatia, that almost always vary their UV-reflectance to match their backgrounds and lower conspicuousness.

For yellow body spiders, the hypodermis is composed of granules, filled with electrons, and does not contain crystals.

White non-UV spiders have their hypodermal layer filled with random patterns of crystals.

The cuticles of white UV and white non-UV spiders reflect UV light very similarly across the spectrum, but yellow non-UV spiders transmit less light throughout the spectrum, specifically in the 380-500 nm region.

[14] Another crucial aspect of prey capture for the Australian crab spider lies in its exact positioning on the flower itself.

To ensure they don't come in the way of that, it is vital for the spider to position itself on the lingulate floret of the flower away from the center.

This forces the bees to make a decision weighing the risk of the spiders and the reward of the nectar.

Highly susceptible bees mostly visit safe flowers, even if the resources are poor in those areas.

Honeybees are adept at finding the best flower patches to maximize nectar reward and minimize predation risk due to their impressive communication system.

The male spider spends the majority of its time searching for females to mate with, and they eat very little overall.

[19] The non-cryptic nature of Australian crab spiders influences the type of bee that they can capture.

These effects range from localized pain, redness, dizziness, headaches, nausea, and swelling, but the symptoms generally subside in 1–2 hours after onset.