Misumena vatia
| Goldenrod Crab Spider | |
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| Female goldenrod crab spider capturing a wasp | |
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| Male is much smaller than female | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Family: | Thomisidae |
| Genus: | Misumena |
| Species: | M. vatia |
| Binomial name | |
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Misumena vatia (Clerck, 1757) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Araneus vatius |
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Araneus vatius
Aranea calycina
Aranea 4-lineata
Aranea kleinii
Aranea osbekii
Aranea hasselquistii
Aranea uddmanni
Aranea scorpiformis
Aranea virginea
Aranea citrea
Aranea citrina
Aranea sulphereoglobosa
Aranea sulphurea
Aranea quinquepuncata
Aranea albonigricans
Aranea calicina
Aranea cretata
Misumena citrea
Thomisus citreus
Thomisus calycinus
Thomisus dauci
Thomisus pratensis
Thomisus spinipes
Thomisus scorpiformis
Thomisus quadrilineatus
Thomisus viridis
Thomisus phrygiatus
Thomisus devius
Thomisus fartus
Thomisus vatius
Pachyptile devia
Thomisus cucurbitinus
Misumena oblonga
Misumena calycina
Misumena occidentalis
Misumenops vatia
Misumena vatia is a species of crab spider with holarctic distribution. In North America, where it is the largest and best-known flower spider, it is called the goldenrod crab spider or flower (crab) spider, because it is commonly found hunting in goldenrod sprays in the autumn. Young males in the early summer may be quite small and easily overlooked, but females can grow up to 10 mm (excluding legs); males reach 5 mm at most.
These spiders may be yellow or white, depending on the flower in which they are hunting. Especially younger females, which may hunt on a variety of flowers such as daisies and sunflowers, may change color "at will". Older females require large amounts of relatively large prey to produce the best possible clutch of eggs. They are therefore, in North America, most commonly found in goldenrod (Solidago sp.), a bright yellow flower which attracts large numbers of insects, especially in autumn. It is often very hard even for a searching human to recognize one of these spiders on a yellow flower. These spiders are sometimes called banana spiders because of their striking yellow color.
The much smaller males scamper from flower to flower in search of females and are often seen missing one or more of their legs. This may be due either to near misses by predators such as birds or to fighting with other males.
When a male finds a female, he climbs over her head over her opisthosoma onto her underside, where he inserts his pedipalps to inseminate her.
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Wikipedia