White Crab Spider: the grab spider
Post date: Tuesday, 9 September, 2014 - 00:00
Not all spiders make webs to catch their lunch, some use stealth and surprise rather than a sticky trap.

The white crab spider (Misumena vatia) is a very small spider but what it lacks in size it makes up for in cunning, courage and ferocity! Although the 'white' crab spider it can also be cream, tinged with green and I have also seen them yellow. It chooses a flower of a matching colour (it is thought that this spider can actually change colour to match the plant it is on although I am not sure this has been totally proven yet) and sits on the petal so it can hardly be seen by the human eye and certainly not by the flying insect eye. An unsuspecting insect flies on to the flower to collect the nectar or pollen and that's it, the spider pounces. It can tackle quite big prey which it stuns with its digestive juices and then it just sits and dissolves it prey.

No sticky web for this spider, it is an ambush specialist!