The little yellow crab spider remained almost unnoticeable until it moved from the yellow blossom to the green leaves. With their first four legs are larger than the hind legs, crab spiders have the capability of walking forward, backward, or sideways like a crab.
Goldenrod Crab Spider
My face encountered several spider webs while I was mowing lawn today but not all spiders build webs as some just lie in wait for lunch to wander into their hunting range. The Goldenrod Crab Spider will their color to yellow or white, depending on which flower they are hunting so they are often on daisies, sunflowers, and goldenrod. These spiders change color by secreting a liquid yellow pigment into the outer cell layer of the body but the process is not a quick change as it take 10 to 25 days to go from white to yellow but the opposite color change takes about six days. Since the daises are fading as summer rolls on, I imagine most are changing to yellow to match the later summer flowers.
Waiting to Attack
The black-eyed susans to me always means summertime, the hotter part of summer. The flowers draw insects to them and even spiders that blend into the yellow petals. The Goldenrod Crab Spider blends in with the yellow flowers and ambush their prey instead of weaving webs.
Goldenrod Crab Spider
