Found a superb female
Crab Spider Misumena vatia in the wet meadow at Brook Manor and spent some time watching and photographing it.
These spiders specialise in hunting pollinating insects that visit white coloured flowers. But rather than using their white colouration as camouflage to hide them from their prey, the spiders are actually more visible to insects than they are to humans, being clearly visible in ultraviolet. Many plants use ultraviolet markings to guide insects to nectar, so insects are possibly attracted to the ultraviolet colour of the spiders. The white colouraton of the spider that we can see is probably to hide them from predators.
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| Female Crab Spider Misumena vatia, Brook Manor, Devon, 13 June 2014 |
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| Crab Spiders do not spin webs but are ambush predators, grabbing and injecting venom into prey through their fangs |
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| Crab Spiders are so called after their habit of holding the first pair of legs apart |
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Superbly camouflaged, females are very variable in colour and pattern and able to change their colour to match the colour of the flower
they are hunting from (usually white or yellow) |
More information on this beautiful spider
here. Also, compare this widespread British, European and North American species to the much meaner looking Brazilian Crab Spider
Epicadus heterogaster I
photographed at REGUA in 2013.
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