northeast-flora-and-fauna

I got an ID on an older picture today, and to celebrate I'm sharing it. This has been identified as a White-banded Crab Spider . I had assumed it was a Goldenrod Crab Spider , mostly because it looked like a yellow crab spider that was lurking amongst the goldenrods. I don't feel too badly about my misidentification: My spider field guide says they look similar. A white/pale band across the face of the White-banded Crab Spider is considered to be the biggest difference between the 2 species, and I didn't exactly get an unobstructed view of the head of the spider. Although both are considered good-sized by the standards of our crab spiders, they're still pretty small. A big female is still under a half inch, and a big male is a third of that. It's kind of hard to see details on any animal this small. I'm pretty sure the unlucky prey is a Western Honeybee . The bee no doubt failed to see a yellow spider hiding in the yellow flowers, a mistake that proved fatal to...