Misumessus

{{Short description|Genus of spiders}} {{Automatic taxobox | taxon = Misumessus | image = White Crab Spider - Flickr - treegrow (2).jpg | image_caption = ''M. oblongus'' in Washington D.C. | authority = Banks, 1904 | type_species = ''Misumessus oblongus'' | type_species_authority = (Keyserling, 1880) | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = 7, see text. }} '''''Misumessus''''' is a genus of North American and Caribbean crab spiders first described by Nathan Banks in 1904. They look similar to members of ''Misumena'', but are much spinier.<ref name=Banks1904>{{cite journal| last=Banks| first=N.| year=1904| title=New genera and species of Nearctic spiders| journal=Journal of the New York Entomological Society| volume=12| pages=109–119}}</ref> It was considered a monotypic genus until 2017,<ref name=Edwa2017>{{cite journal| last=Edwards| first=G. B.| year=2017| title=Revision of Misumessus (Thomisidae: Thomisinae: Misumenini), with observations on crab spider terminology| journal=Journal of Arachnology| volume=45| issue=3| pages=296–323| doi=10.1636/JoA-S-17-025.1| s2cid=90623800| url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/289916}}</ref> but its taxonomic standing has been debated throughout the 20th century, first as a synonym of ''Misumenops'',<ref name=Petr1911>{{cite journal| last=Petrunkevitch| first=A.| year=1911| title=A synonymic index-catalogue of spiders of North, Central and South America with all adjacent islands, Greenland, Bermuda, West Indies, Terra del Fuego, Galapagos, etc.| journal=Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History| volume=29}}</ref> then later as its subgenus.<ref name=Schi1965>{{cite journal| last=Schick| first=R. X.| year=1965| title=The crab spiders of California (Araneae, Thomisidae) |journal=Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History| volume=129| page=111}}</ref> It was raised to genus status in 2008,<ref name=Leht2008>{{cite journal| last1=Lehtinen| first=P. T.| last2=Marusik| first2=Y. M.| year=2008| title=A redefinition of Misumenops F. O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1900 (Araneae, Thomisidae) and review of the New World species| journal=Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society| volume=14| pages=173–198}}</ref> but has still been confused with similar genera, some of which were only known by character descriptions made by Eugène Simon nearly fifty years earlier.<ref name=Leht2008 />

== Species == {{As of|2019|02}} it contains seven species:<ref name=NMBE>{{cite web|title=Thomisidae| website=World Spider Catalog| publisher=Natural History Museum Bern| accessdate=2019-02-08| url=http://www.wsc.nmbe.ch/genus/3663}}</ref> *''Misumessus bishopae'' Edwards, 2017 – Puerto Rico, Dominica, Grenadines *''Misumessus blackwalli'' Edwards, 2017 – Bermuda *''Misumessus dicaprioi'' Edwards, 2017 – USA *''Misumessus lappi'' Edwards, 2017 – USA *''Misumessus oblongus'' (Keyserling, 1880) – Canada, USA *''Misumessus quinteroi'' Edwards, 2017 – Central America, Caribbean *''Misumessus tamiami'' Edwards, 2017 – USA

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:Thomisidae Category:Thomisidae genera Category:Spiders of North America Category:Spiders of Central America Category:Taxa named by Nathan Banks {{Thomisidae-stub}}