I am making an inventory of everything that lives in our local village Nature Area. The tops of cow parsley flowers are an excellent place for spotting pollinating insects because these are attracted to the plentiful nectar, pollen and sap. They are also great places for insects to meet mates. And such abundant food sources and popular breeding grounds provide good hunting territory for the creatures that eat insects.
One such hunter is the Crab Spider (Misumena vatia). It is rather special because it can walk forwards, backwards, and sideways. The female, like the individual shown here, remains in the one flowerhead, camouflaged against the petals. She can change her colour slightly to blend in with the background, or even assume the colour of the prey she has eaten. This specimen is mostly white with two green stripes on the thorax, and two red ones on the swollen abdomen which also has five dimples. She likes to pounce on visiting insects and the larger the better. Here she seems to be eating a hoverfly.
The male Crab Spiders are much smaller, plain brown, and travel between flowerheads looking for females to mate with.
Useful Books and Links
Britain’s Spiders – A field guide, Lawrence Bee, Geoff Oxford and Helen Smith, British Arachnological Society, Wild Guides, 2017, ISBN 978-0-691-20474-1, Princetown University Press.
https://srs.britishspiders.org.uk/portal.php/p/Crab+spider+Misumena+vatia
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/spiders/flower-crab-spider
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Charlton Down Nature Area 