By Chelsea Jandreau
Audubon just wrapped up our first week of summer day camp, which means I spent a decent amount of time outside with 8 – 11-year-olds exploring, hiking, and playing in the woods and wetlands. Along one of these hikes, one of the campers stopped to look at a daisy and found a small, white spider hiding underneath the flower. It was the same shade as the white daisy petal, and so I was impressed we even spotted the tiny arachnid through its attempted camouflage.
Summer and bugs go together like peanut butter and jelly. Whether you are thinking about mosquitoes, butterflies, or ants, these critters multiply in numbers as soon as it gets warm enough to hop, fly, and crawl around. Now, I know they are not everyone’s favorite, but spiders are also included in this bug explosion.
Spiders are a frequently cited fear, and although I do not share this fear, I do understand the multitude of reasons this could be true. Spiders are found just about everywhere, crawling and jumping with eight agile legs and getting a complete view of the world around them in all directions with their eight eyes. Unlike fuzzy mammals, our brains do not seem to be programmed to view this strange anatomy as adorable.
I think one of the other reasons people are uneasy with spiders has to do with their potential danger. Like snakes, another common fear, some spiders are venomous and harmful to humans. There are thousands of spider species across the world, so it is difficult to figure out which one you are staring down if you are unsure which spiders you might encounter in your area. In reality, very few spiders actually have the potential to harm humans, but when you don’t know which ones are harmful, it makes sense to just avoid them all to be on the safe side.
My spider identification skills are pretty basic. It’s just enough to group them, but I can be just as wary when faced with an unfamiliar spider. For example, just a few days ago, I woke up and the first thing I saw was a jumping spider sitting on my pillow about four inches in front of my face. I’m not sure exactly which species it was, but jumping spiders are a common sight in my home, so I calmly moved it off the bed. On the other hand, I also remember waking up one morning while camping to a large, brown spider sitting on my sleeping bag. I did not know what it was and I was a little less calm about getting that one off of me.
Since there are so many species, spiders come in a full range of sizes, colors, leg lengths, and fuzziness. This also means they come with a stunning array of adaptations that help them survive across biomes, from sitting under the sand waiting for prey, to skating across the tops of ponds. The stereotypical spider picture is one spinning a web and waiting for other insects to fly into it, but spiders have so many different behaviors and adaptations that help them survive and catch prey.
One of these fascinating spiders was that little white spider hanging out on a white daisy. It is called a crab spider, and I fully appreciate their ingenuity. Crab spider is a common name applied to many species, but most of them are in the Thomisidae family. There are a couple thousand species in this family and instead of spinning a web to catch their prey, they are largely ambush predators. This means they find a place to hide and wait for their prey to come by before striking out and grabbing it.
Crab spiders were given their name due to their appearance. They resemble typical crabs in the way they look, they hold their front pair of legs up and forward making them reminiscent of pincers, and scuttle sideways, forward and backward. They come in many colors, and in the case of the one we found last week, its color is actually a vital part of how it catches its food.
The crab spider’s color helps it to remain camouflaged on the flower so it is less likely to be spotted by their prey, and by extension other predators. Some crab spiders can even slowly change colors to match the flower they are sitting on or under, although it can take a couple of days to do so. Since the previously spotted spider was already white, we can assume that it had been hunting on other daisies, if not this exact flower for a while.
In general, spiders are masters of the sit and wait style of hunting, and this one is no different. This crab spider’s prey consists of flies, bees, moths and other insects that hang around the same flowers the spiders do. As insects land on flowers to collect food themselves, the crab spider uses its two enlarged front legs to grab it and then uses venom to subdue its prey. This is a spider working smarter, not harder. And despite having venom, crab spiders are not a danger to humans, just the small bugs it calls food. I don’t want to scare you off from flowers forever.
Although this particular species waits in flowers, others might sit in leaf litter or in the bark of trees waiting for prey to drop in. Despite not building webs, crab spiders can still produce silk, mostly to move around or protect their eggs. The crab spiders around here are often found in a variety of white, yellows and purples to blend in with common wildflowers.
Spiders, even the colorful ones that hang out on flowers, can be a source of fear, but they can also be a source of fascination. Start focusing on what makes something interesting or unique, and you might find that your increased knowledge leads to a decrease in fear. Although I do understand that for some, there is no turning that fear around. Whatever your feelings on spiders, that doesn’t change the impact many spiders have on their respective ecosystems, so even if you can’t get over the legs and eyes, consider taking the avoidance approach instead of the squish on sight approach to spider sightings.
Audubon Community Nature Center builds and nurtures connections between people and nature. ACNC is located just east of Route 62 between Warren and Jamestown. The trails and outdoor facilities are open from dawn to dusk. The Nature Center is open from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. daily except Sunday when it opens at 1 p.m. More information can be found online at auduboncnc.org or by calling (716) 569-2345.
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