Goldenrod crab spiders tend to lay webs on goldenrod and milkweed flowers
For Wild Boyz Photography, October’s theme is “Weird Wild”. It might be my favorite gallery theme of the year because we can showcase how wild nature truly is. This strange pink spider is called a goldenrod crab spider. “Goldenrod” is the type of flower this spider is usually found on (also the flower in this photo). It is called a “crab” spider because of its posture and how the spider walks. Its front legs are bigger than the smaller rear pairs. This spider is able to walk sideways, forwards, and backwards, similar to how a crab would walk. For these spiders, the females are larger than the males (females up to 10 mm and males up to 5mm). These spiders are wild because they can change body color based on their surroundings, and also what they eat. For the most part, these spiders eat insects. As this photo shows, they are very good at that. Goldenrod crab spiders use venom to stun their prey, then consume their meal. In this photo, you can see the spider caught a fly. These spiders tend to lay webs on the goldenrod flower and milkweed in order to catch prey. Females also lay silk for the males to follow, in order to meet a mate.
This photo was taken in the Rolland F. Perry City Forest in Bangor, Maine. This is a 600+ acre wildlife habitat that is open to the public year-round. There are 9 miles of trails for hiking, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing. Up until recently, I had only been to this park in the winter months. And in the state of Maine, most of the months are “winter” months. Fortunately, I got to visit this summer and saw a whole different forest. The forest was so lush and thick with vegetation. I was shooting photos of bees when I came across this goldenrod crab spider. I kept a distance and slowly approached, so not to scare it off. I was lucky to have about ten minutes of observation and close photography before the spider decided to move on.
If you look closely, you can see the goldenrod crab spider has eight eyes! These use this complex visual system to hunt prey and change color to camouflage with their hunting environment.
This spider has eight eyes!
Did You Know?
Some younger female goldenrod crab spiders will also hunt on daises and sunflowers.
Although the goldenrod crab spider is venomous, it is not a threat to humans because its fangs cannot penetrate human skin.
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