Our spider of the month is this Camaricus nigrotesselatus found by Kelly Gottschalk in Sabie, Mpumalanga. She was busy photographing some bird’s nest fungi when this spider popped up from underneath.
Camaricus species are part of the crab spider family (Thomisidae), which is one of the largest spider families in the world (with more than 2 100 species worldwide, and at least 140 species in South Africa). There are only two Camaricus species in South Africa. Common names for this genus include “spotted camaricus crab spiders” and “ladybird crab spiders”.
Since this spider almost looks like a Christmas tree ornament, we chose her as December’s spider of the month.
