Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar

TaxonomyBrowseInfoImagesLinksBooksData
Photo#1409433
Goldenrod Crab Spider, dorsal - Misumena vatia - female

Goldenrod Crab Spider, dorsal - Misumena vatia - Female
Sandia Mountains, Bernalillo County, New Mexico, USA
June 4, 2017
Size: 10.2 mm BL
Download high resolution image here.

I collected this spider hiding within the blossom of a yellow flag iris (Iris pseudacorus) blossom in a boggy area adjacent to the Cienga Canyon picnic grounds, Sandia Crest 7.5’ quadrangle in the Sandia Mountains, Bernalillo Co, NM. (35°10'06.0"N 106°22'55.0"W) at 7439 ft elevation. According to a sign along a nature trail passing by the boggy area, it is called "Cienega Meadow". The sign reads:
"Cienega in Spanish means, 'A Wet Meadow'. Meadows in the forest sometimes are caused by the filling of beaver dams by sediment, but there are no beavers in the Sandia Mountains. This meadow was, at one time, a man-made pond storing water for small Spanish settlements. The pond eventually filled with sediment, forming this meadow."

The iris, meanwhile, is an invasive species. I reported it on the USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species (NAS) information website. The collection record page has an image of the specific iris. Ian Pfingsten, a botanist for the USGS responded:
"I will send out a NAS Alert regarding your specimen. I will also notify my state contact for NM.
"I was able to locate three previous specimens that had yet to be entered into our database, and two were in Bernalillo Co. where you found your specimen. However, your report is the first we have for the Rio Grande-Sante Fe drainage, as those previous specimens from 2007 were in the Rio Grande-Albuquerque drainage. The other specimen from 2012 was along the Sapello River in San Miguel Co."

This specimen was spread and soaked in acetone for a few days to minimize abdominal shrivel during desiccation.

This image is from a Helicon Focus processed stack of 56 images with a 195 µm step taken with a reversed Leitz Focotar-2 enlarging lens set to F/5.6 + extension tube + Nikon D810 camera.

Images of this individual: tag all
Goldenrod Crab Spider, dorsal - Misumena vatia - female Goldenrod Crab Spider, ventral - Misumena vatia - female Goldenrod Crab Spider, anterior-dorsal head - Misumena vatia - female