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Misumena vatia
Misumena vatia is a species of crab spider with holarctic distribution. In North America, where it is the largest and best-known flower spider, it is called the goldenrod crab spider or flower spider. ... The much smaller males (dark brown) scamper from flower to flower in search of females and are often seen missing one or more of their legs. This may be due either to near misses by predators such as birds or to fighting with other males. When a male finds a female, he climbs over her head over her opisthosoma onto her underside, where he inserts his pedipalps to inseminate her. - excerpt from Wikipedia
These spiders change color by secreting a liquid yellow pigment into the outer cell layer of the body. On a white base, this pigment is transported into lower layers, so that inner glands, filled with white guanine, become visible. The color similarity between the spider and the flower is well matched with a white flower, in particular the Chaerophyllum temulum, compared to a yellow flower based on the spectral reflectance functions. If the spider dwells longer on a white plant, the yellow pigment is often excreted. It will then take the spider much longer to change to yellow, because it will have to produce the yellow pigment first. The color change is induced by visual feedback; spiders with painted eyes were found to have lost this ability. - from wikipedia
White and pink body is female and small and dark brown color is male.
1 Comment
Wow, great capture! Although I've been following crab spiders for several years, I've never seen male & female together! Each year, I, also look for Jagged Ambush Bugs. Are you familiar with them? They are, also, predators, who wait on flowers for prey & have some ability to camouflage. I've just started seeing crab spiders, this summer, near Albany, NY. Most have been very small! I, recently, saw them for the first time, in flower petal blinds, on Jerusalem Artichoke! Here's a link to my insect predator set on flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mudder_bbc...