Sunday, July 01, 2007

Misumena vatia

One of the ambassador spiders at Spider Web Watch is the Misumena vatia, or goldenrod crab spider. So far, I've observed ten different individuals of this lovely species, seven of which are living in the front garden. Below a sampling. The first two are spiders I found at the near edge of the far field. The rest, garden dwellers, in a sequence: small, smaller, smallest.

In the late afternoon sun, having a snack

Tiny, brave, on a buttercup

Waiting on a shasta daisy

Enjoying a fly on a shasta daisy

Just a white speck, snacking on a dark speck, that turned out to be a tiny fly


Some of the juveniles (i.e., photos 1, 2, 4, and 5) might be Misumena formosipes. Take a look at the page at Spider WebWatch (and this discussion) to see the diffculties involved in distinguishing these from vatia.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That top picture is fantastic. The lighting is extraordinary, both on the flower and the spider.