Some years ago, while looking at a picture I took of a tiger lilly, I discovered that the flower sheltered a crab spider (Misumena vatia). Known variously as a flower spider, and a goldenrod spider, this tiny predator haunts flowers and pounces on the pollinators that visit. Now I watch for these tiny creatures, and find them mainly on daisies. The crab spider does not move around much. Once spotted on a flower, it usually can be seen at the same place on the same flower for days thereafter.
The Kootenay-Lake Website offers a discussion and more pictures of the local spiders.
As with my first discovery of a crab spider in a picture of a tiger lilly, I did not see the spider when I took this picture of a pieris japonica, so well did it blend in: “pay no attention to me; I am just one of the blossoms.”
The spider awaits a victim with open arms. This is a female.
After the crab spider’s victim has been paralyzed with a venom, it can be consumed at the spider’s leisure.
The venom liquifies the internal contents of the victim which the spider then drinks.
The male crab spider is much smaller than the female and so not easy to find early in the season. The pollen spread across the petals near the spider is evidence of earlier struggles.