Thursday 14 June 2012

Home Patch (20): White Crab Spider

This small bulbous spider was scuttling along in the morning sunshine, keen to hide on the underside of the leaves. Its speed made it hard to view properly or photograph, but I am guessing it is a Misumena vatia or White Crab Spider. I understand that the name in Dutch means 'Chameleon Spider', and apparently colour variation is well documented. Some of these spiders have stripes. They tend to show a preference for white flowers, so perhaps the one above was hoping to find some in our garden ... daisies, perhaps. Crab Spiders do not spin webs to catch their prey.

2 comments:

Naquillity said...

if this little guy gets on a white flower i'm sure he'd go unnoticed. what luck to find him scurrying across the green leaves. it's always fun to capture nature/ wildlife in their own habitat. spiders in one's bed is not my idea of fun... ewww... hope all is well. have a great day~

Andrea said...

We have a lot of spiders, but i seem not to like them for photographs, as i only have the big ones!