Spider Population May Be Increasing

Observation by Brian Holter:

What kind of spider is this? They are becoming more common. I don’t remember seeing them as a kid growing up here.

Derek Sikes, Entomologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Museum of the North, writes:

It's hard to tell from those photographs, but it looks like a crab spider, perhaps Misumena vatia, a species well-known throughout Interior, Southcentral, and Southeast Alaska.

Comments from LEO Editors:

According to the Animal Diversity Web at the University of Michigan, Misumena vatia is a species of crab spiders found only in North America. Females are a lighter colored white and yellow, and sometimes have reddish coloring on the abdomen. Males are darker reddish brown. Misumena vatia will change colors to provide camouflage as it hunts, feeding on insects such as flies, butterflies, grasshoppers and bees. It is not dangerous to humans. Erica Lujan