Misumessus

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.^[1] It was considered a monotypic genus until 2017,^[2] but its taxonomic standing has been debated throughout the 20th century, first as a synonym of Misumenops,^[3] then later as its subgenus.^[4] It was raised to genus status in 2008,^[5] 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.^[5]

Misumessus
M. oblongus in Washington D.C.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Thomisidae
Genus:	Misumessus Banks, 1904
Type species
Misumessus oblongus (Keyserling, 1880)
Species
7, see text.

Species

As of February 2019^[update] it contains seven species:^[6]

• 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