Spiders and Harvestmen
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.
