Goldenrod Crab Spider Finds Lunch

Online community member Jim Dubois sent me these terrific images of a crab spider (family Thomisidae) and I'm finally getting around to posting them.

Here's what Jim had to say:

"I finally found a crab spider. It's about 1" across the front legs, and has a small victim that was about 3/8" of an inch long. The spider's a goldenrod spider, [Misumena vatia] and the meal's a little halictid bee, a tiny wild bee."

"You can see the pollen all over the bee, it was having a pretty good day to this point. I find those spiders fascinating, the way they sit in a flower bloom with their legs out ready to clutch the first thing that comes into range. They can vary their colour slightly, and pick a flower their colour matches, so they're nearly invisible until it's too late. They're much like a springloaded trap. Amazing what you can find when you look closely enough."

With autumn approaching it's a good time to find these spiders hunting in stands of goldenrod, with the females (up to 10 mm not counting the legs) easier to spot than the males (5 mm). They're not easy to see though; sometimes the best way is to look for prey --bees or flies -- who appear to be sitting on a flower awkwardly.

By the way, this what our staff ecologist Ted Cheskey remarked when I shared Jim's photos with him: "This is a naturalist at his (or her) best. With careful observation we see a food chain in action before our eyes – plant gives food to herbivore, fly gives food to carnivore spider. I love those crab spiders also."