100 More Species #50 Goldenrod crab spider

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Goldenrod crab spider Misumena vatia

Certain animals tend to be referred to by either a male or female pronoun, whether or not individual's sex is known. I noticed when I was a child that some people referred to all cats as "her" and all dogs as "him." I do this with spiders--unless I know the spider to be male, I refer to it as a female. This is because the female spider is usually much bigger and more interesting than the male. Above we see a tiny male goldenrod crab spider, barely larger than the 3mm flowers of the goldenrod blossom. The female is usually a full centimeter in size, with an additional centimeter of legspan.

My first encounter with one was at the same phlox where I first saw hummingbird moths. A bumblebee was oddly still on the white flowers; I examined it closely and found my face alarmingly close to spider with a body the shape and color of a sun-bleached skull, jaws clenched on the dying bee. It's legs were held crablike, forever poised to seize. The encounter impressed me, one of the few times I was viscerally frightened by a spider.

This species is notable for changing color from yellow to white depending on where it is hunting. The spider specializes on pollinators, calling into question the blanket label of beneficial attributed to spider-kind. Looked at another way, this spider drives the evolution of pollinators, selecting against the slow and unwary.