Flower crab spider - the bane of bees

Female flower crab spider feeding on a bumble bee - Cypress Hills, Alberta

I was in a grassy field brimming with flowers, the most conspicuous being blanket flowers.  The large yellow-petalled bloom was a common attractant to many insects - a lot of them pollinators, such as bumble bees and butterflies.  It was a remarkable opportunity to capture photos of them doing nature's work.  But it seems that such actions were not without danger, as one bumble bee in particular found out.

I noticed it first as an oddity amongst the blooms.  A black blob hanging underneath one of the blanket flowers.  To investigate, I turned the flower over to reveal its undersides, and discovered that the blob was in fact a bumble bee.  It was in its death throws - one of its legs was still moving.  And attached to its abdomen was a large yellow and red spider.

The flower-crab spider is an ambush predator.  It hides on flowers that are likely to be visited by insect pollinators.  The spider can change colour from yellow to white - over a period of days - depending on the colour of flower it hides on.  A yellow spider on a white flower would likely be noticed by any attending insects.  In this case, the yellow blooms perfectly concealed the yellow spider.

Crab spiders all have two front pairs of legs that are longer than the back pairs.  They wait for impending prey with the forearms spread, ready to spring the moment something comes near them.  In this case, a bumble bee peacefully gathering nectar and pollen.  Without warning, the trap was sprung, and the surprised bee was then impaled with venomous fangs that would decree the end.  The venom, laden with digestive juices, began to dissolve the insect's interior.  The victorious hunter would drag its victim to the flower's undersides to enjoy her meal.

Yes, a female.  The males are a tenth of the size.  I wrote a blog on what I encountered one day between a male and female flower crab spiders.  You can read that here.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com

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