Goldenrod crab spider
I think I’d read in the book Made By Hand by Mark Frauenfelder about a gentleman who said the minute you drive off your farm, the rest of the day is shot. I agree. We’ve been trying to stick around the acreage on Saturday mornings and enjoying the land that we have. We don’t want to shoot any days.
This morning I met my first yellow spider. I decided to shoot it instead.
The goldenrod crab spider I met in our pasture.
The web tells me this might be a goldenrod crab spider, Misumena vitia. Vitia means “bow-legged,” hinting at the long legs these spiders have and their funny gait. Genus Misumena means “hated,” but apparently these spiders had a different genus when they were originally classified.
These spiders don’t form webs. Instead, they hide themselves in flowers and await their prey to land within easy reach. The take-home lesson for me is that even the beautiful is a platform for our destruction.