Spiders are Pollinators Too!

When Celebrating Pollinators, Don't Forget Spiders

Did you know it's National Pollinator Week? Sometimes we forget that it's not just the birds and the bees, but also the spiders that are moving around pollen between flowers. I'm personally pretty fascinated with spiders and up here in Oregon I've been delighted to find SO many different spider species on my property (as well as in my house! lol).

Whilst these Ox-eye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) are an invasive plant that needs to be managed in my area, they still serve a purpose for pollinators and I was excited to find this Goldenrod Crab spider (Misumena vatia) on one of the flowers. The cool thing about female crab spiders is that they can change their color from white to yellow to camouflage themselves depending on what type of flower they are on. The color transition takes time thought; about six days for the spider to change from yellow to white and around twenty-five days to make the shift from yellow back to white. These spiders are ambush hunters so they will wait for prey to wander on to the flower while they wait to pounce.

Now, these spiders are not visiting flowers for pollen or nectar, but they still move pollen around with their bodies simply by moving across the flowers; so incidental pollination if you will. But that's how a lot of pollination happens.

Of course these ambush spiders may be pollinating, but they are also hunting other pollinators. Bees beware!