With the new snowfall, there is very little color on the landscape, and certainly no bright yellow flowers. Bright flowers and even colorful spiders won’t reappear for a few more months.

This successful spider, carrying its latest victim, is called the goldenrod crab spider or flower (crab) spider, because it is commonly found hunting in goldenrod sprays in the autumn. The goldenrod attracts a large numbers of insects and therefore, the older female spider will prey there to produce the best possible clutch of eggs.

Younger females will hunt on a variety of flowers such as daisies and sunflowers and are able to change their color to yellow or white. The color change takes several days to complete.

The goldenrod crab spider does not build webs but instead they ambush their prey and they have small jaws with venom to take on larger insects.

Goldenrod Crab Spider