RHH's photos with the keyword: crab spider

While photographing Bog Orchids (Tall Northern Green Bog Orchid in this case) in Kootenay National Park in British Columbia, I stopped to photograph this moth, never realizing until I arrived home that the moth was in the clutches of a Crab Spider which must have been hiding out on the orchid.

Taking photos of Bog Orchids in Kootenay National Park in British Columbia, we found this Crab Spider hiding out among the flowers. One of the insets shows another Crab Spider with a captured moth and the second inset shows a Spittle Bug, though only the spittle and not the bug is visible. The orchid is Platanthera huronensis, the Tall Northern Bog Orchid, very common in the Canadian Rockies.

July 31 and August 1, 2013, we were in Olympic National Park orchid hunting. Our first stop was in the area of Crescent Lake where we looked for an found two orchids including this one, the Elegant Piperia (Piperia elegans). One one of the several plants we found there was a crab spider lurking among the flowers. He had taken on the color of the stems and we probably would not have noticed him if he had not moved, but here he is. The Elegant Piperia, the orchid, can be around three feet tall (100cm) and in this location grows very tall. The individual flowers, however, are only about a quarter of an inch (8mm). I've submitted a picture of the spider to BugGuide.net for identification and the spider has been identified there as the Flower Spider, Misumena vatia.

This is the Yellow Lady's Slipper, Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens. It was photographed near Tete Jaune Cache in British Columbia. Most of the flowers were finished and this one is nearly finished, but the color was still good and the crab spider was an additional attraction. We've been away on day trips - trying to take as much advantage of the summer as possible, thus the lack of posting. Monday I hiked the Yellow Aster Butte Trail - ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/07/yellow-aste... - near Mount Baker with a friend and Thursday my wife and I went "orchid hunting" in the Olympics.

I know that I am getting tired of these pictures and I'm sure everyone else is too, but I promise this will be the last. It was taken on one of our recent visits to the floating bog on Summer Lake. On this White Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia leucophylla) we found this crab spider which had captured and was dining on a moth or skipper much larger than itself. When we tried to photograph it it retreated around the edge of the pitcher plant with its prey and finally dropped the insect into the pitcher. Whether it was finished eating or just tired of trying to avoid us we could not tell, but what a double jeopardy! Insects have to beware both the deadly beauty of the Pitcher Plants and the spiders so often lurking inside or nearby. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/10/one-more-vi... ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/10/little-bog-... ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/06/little-bog-...