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Tag Archives: Misumena vatia

Flower crab spiders

26 Wednesday Apr 2023

Posted by sconzani in spiders

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Tags

British spiders, Crab spider, Misumena vatia, white spider

I don’t know whether it’s the time of year or the weather conditions but I’m seeing quite a lot of Flower crab spiders (Misumena vatia), mostly white so presumably male – the females, according to the Wildlife Trust website, are not able to change their colour to match their surroundings.

230426 crab spiders (1)

I was rather tempted to make this blog’s title a pun on their having eight eyes (‘Aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye’, or ‘The eyes have it’) but resisted – though, as you see, I still couldn’t help but mention them. Just imagine what it must be like to have so many eyes – what do they see?

230426 crab spiders (2)

In an attempt to photograph all those eyes, I managed to get quite close to one particular beastie but quickly backed off when it began to open its legs – they are not the open arms of welcome, but rather the snatch of death!

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188/366 Arachnophilia

06 Monday Jul 2020

Posted by sconzani in nature, spiders

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British spiders, Misumena vatia, Nursery web spider, Paidiscura pallens, Pisaura mirabilis, sputnik-shaped egg sac, White crab spider

I’m not a huge spider fan but, as I’ve been spying a few during recent meanders, I thought I should show them a little love, so …

200706 1 crab spider

White crab spiders (Misumena vatia) like this one are usually very good at camouflaging themselves, lurking on white or pale-coloured flowers, but this little one was being bold, and so made for a good subject for a photo.

200706 2 spider and eggs

A spot of leaf-turning revealed several Paidiscura pallens spiders and their weirdly shaped egg sacs. You can read more about these tiny creatures in my previous blog The sputnik spider, July 2017.

200706 3 spider and eggs

One of the meadows where I walk has a lot of long grass, some of which is now woven together by the silken threads of Nursery web spiders (Pisaura mirabilis). These spiders don’t spin webs to catch food; instead, their webs are constructed to keep their spiderlings safe while they grow in to adults.

200706 4 spider and eggs
200706 5 spider and eggs

The adult spiders are a pale brown in colour, with a pattern of darker brown and black stripes running vertically along their bodies.

200706 6 spider and eggs

The Wildlife Trust website has this fascinating information about Nursery web spiders:
‘Mating is a dangerous game for male Nursery web spiders, so they present a gift of food to the female while laying perfectly still and pretending to be dead. When the female investigates the food, the male will suddenly jump up and mate with her.’

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Camouflage

23 Tuesday Aug 2016

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

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Tags

Bindweed flower, camouflage, Crab spider, Eupeodes corollae, hoverfly, insect camouflage, Misumena vatia, sawfly larve

On the positive side … this Sawfly larva has its colour co-ordination working very well, though maybe needs to work on its choreography.

160823 camouflage (2)

On the negative side … or positive side, depending on whether you’re identifying with the Crab spider (probably Misumena vatia) using the large white Bindweed flower as its lair, or the spider’s victim, a hoverfly (probably Eupeodes corollae).

160823 camouflage (1)

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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