Spiders and Harvestmen

Goldenrod Spider Goldenrod Spider
Misumena vatia
Flower Spider

Description

Male 1/8" (3-4 mm), female 1/4-3/8" (5-10 mm). Female yellowish to white with crimson streaks on each side of abdomen and a reddish-brown stain between eyes. Female's legs pale. Male's cephalothorax dark reddish brown with white spot in center and in front of eyes; abdomen white with 2 red bands. Male has 2 pairs of reddish-brown fore legs, 2 pairs of yellow hind legs.

Food

Flower-visiting insects.

Life Cycle

Eggs are protected in a silken sac. Female usually dies before spiderlings hatch and disperse.

Habitat

Meadows, fields, and gardens on daisies, goldenrod, and other white or yellow flowers.

Range

Throughout North America and southern Canada.

Discussion

This spider's coloring often changes to yellow, camouflaging it on yellow daisies and goldenrod. The smaller Flower Spider (Misumenops asperatus), male 1/8" (3 mm), female 1/4" (5 mm), is brownish to pale gray marked with 2 pink stripes on the cephalothorax, a pattern of pink streaks and spots on the abdomen, and pink bands around tibiae and tarsi of first 2 pairs of legs. It is covered with stiff short hair. This spider lives among grasses and leaves in the eastern United States and southern Canada, west to Arizona, and north to Alberta.