Crab Spider

The Crab Spider Misumena vatia will sit on a flower for days, even weeks, patiently waiting for insects, often flies and bees, to land close by. It will then pounce, and gripping it's prey with long crab-like front legs will paralyse the unfortunate victim with a venomous bite. Mature females have the ability to vary their colour to match their background, varying between yellow, white or tints of green and so can be easily overlooked despite being 10mm in size. The male is only half the size and browner in colouration and spends much of its time moving rapidly from flower to flower searching for females to mate with. It would appear that the yellow female below, photographed on the white flower of Hogweed Heracleum spondylium has not got to grips with the concept of camouflage, but in fact it it takes about 6 days to change colour from yellow to white and much longer in reverse. Mind you the common sense of the fly could be called into question!

Crab Spider Misumena vatia on Hogweed Heracleum spondylium (09/07/2008)

The Crab Spider Misumena vatia is found in Southern Britain and Wales but has a Holartic distribution and in North America is known as the Goldenrod Crab Spider due to it's habit of spending long periods of time on the yellow flowers of Goldenrod Solidago sp.

The photograph was taken whilst I was searching for Purple Emperors and White Admirals at Finemere Woods near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire on a very hot and sunny day in July 2008.