Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Goldenrod Spider

I went outside this afternoon to water a plant I have sitting on a pedestal on the front corner of our home when I spotted a spider.  I’ve never seen a yellow spider before so I thought I’d better get a photo of it.  I was leery about getting too close because I didn’t know if this spider was an attacker, jumper, poisonous, or just what it did.  After taking the photos, I came in and immediately started a Google search to find out all the details I could on this particular spider.  Upon my research, I found out that it is a Goldenrod Spider, which is a member of the crab spider family.  It can camouflage itself changing its color from white to yellow.  The one in my picture happens to be a female.  Males are a dark reddish-brown, with a whitish abdomen with dark red streaks.  Goldenrod Spiders are very helpful to gardeners, eating pests and controlling the fly, bee, and wasp population.  The bite of a Goldenrod Spider is not harmful to humans.  Actually, I am not a spider person and even writing about this spider is giving me the creepies!  Thus, a very short blog!

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