Posts Tagged: crab spider
Let's Hear It for Biocontrol, Integrated Pest Management
Let's hear it for biocontrol. You've seen lady beetles, aka ladybugs, preying on aphids. But have...
An assassin bug drills a pest, a spotted cucumber beetle. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A lady beetle, aka ladybug, snares an aphid. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A crab spider munches on a stink bug. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A great blue heron engages in a little pest management: it catches a rodent, a meadow vole, at Bodega Bay. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The great blue heron gets its prey, a meadow vole, in position before swallowing it whole. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Crab Spider and the Bee
It was a good day for a crab spider. It was NOT a good day for a honey bee. It's early evening...
A crab spider has just ambushed a honey bee on a bluebeard blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The crab spider can turn colors from white to yellow or yellow to white This one is yellow, awaiting prey on a blanketflower, Gallardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
What's for Dinner? How About a Green Bottle Fly?
What's for dinner? A crab spider, camouflaged in our lavender patch, didn't catch a honey bee, a...
A crab spider dines on a green bottle fly in a lavender patch in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The crab spider is camouflaged, but its prey, a green bottle fly with its familiar metallic blue-green coloring, isn't. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Itsy Bitsy Spider
The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out. Out...
Yes, we can see you. A crab spider on Mexican sunflower (Tithonia). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The crab spider ventures out on a petal of the Mexican sunflower (Tithonia). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A perfectly camouflaged crab spider on a gold coin flower (Asteriscus maritimus). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Autumn's Majesty: Tithonia
If there's any flower that should be crowned "Autumn's Majesty," that would be the Mexican...
A Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, lands on a Mexican sunflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
In a sea of nearly spent Mexican sunflowers, a lone migrating monarch, Danaus plexippus, finds food. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee, Apis mellifera, takes a liking to the Tithonia, aka Mexican sunflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A skipper, family Hesperiidae, hangs out on the Tithonia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The wings of a black hover fly or syrphid, aka "Mexican cactus fly" (Copestylum mexicanum), gleam in the sunlight. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Predators hang out on the Mexican sunflower, too. A crab spider, family Thomisidae, waits for prey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)