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Comments & ID Thoughts
Is this a crab spider at the entrance to my bee hive? Who is the hitchhiker? Is this a serious threat to the bee colony? Thanks for your help.
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Jun 22, 2020
- Photographed: Jun 22, 2020
- Spider: Unidentified
- Location: Pritchard, British Columbia, Canada
- Spotted Outdoors: Man-made structure (building wall, fences, etc.)
- Found in web?: No
- Attributes:
Ah! You have a crab spider pair – male and female, the male being the brown one. Crab spiders hide in flowers and eat visitors – often honeybees. They will not invade your hive, and will indeed be killed if the bees discover them there. This is not a serious threat to your bee colony, as a spider can only eat one bee at a time. Your bees can reproduce quickly enough to keep up with incidental foraging losses to spiders.
Helper-Harvestman Thank you very much for the information- If I see them again I will gently re-locate so as not to have the bees bothered. He is SO much smaller than her!
You’re welcome!
Yes, the sexual dimorphism of spiders can be pretty extreme. Some males are less than a tenth of the size of their female counterparts. Many have to follow elaborate courtship rituals to avoid being mistaken for prey and eaten. Some of the most spectacular spider courtship dances are done by the male peacock spiders.
You have piqued my interest and I will have to do some more reading.
I’m so glad! Spiders are fascinating creatures. Here is a short excerpt from the Encyclopedia Britannica: “Males in a few species locate a female and unceremoniously run to her and mate. In most species, however, elaborate courtship patterns have evolved, probably to protect the male from being mistaken for prey. The male of the orb weaver family (Araneidae) and some others court by rhythmically plucking the threads of a web. After the female approaches, he pats and strokes her before mating. When male wolf spiders or jumping spiders see a female, they wave the pedipalps, conveying a visual message characteristic of the species. An appropriate response… Read more »
There was a post right here on SpiderID not long ago that inspired me to do some research on spider mating rituals. Here’s the link:
https://spiderid.com/picture/102322/#comment-53768