Book Review: Crab Spiders by Joanne Randolph, in Nightmare Creatures: Spiders! Series Title #2

Arachnid and insect exo-skeletons encase drained interiors once crab spiders inject powerful venom and remove contents dissolved by digestive fluids. Crab spiders find their feeding methods conducive to consuming ambushed, fresh, opportunistic prey on the spot and counterproductive to stockpiling for rainy days. The behavior gives crab spiders motionless, passive, stay-at-home forages around homes at ground level, on herbaceous and woody plants, or under stones in or on:

• beaches;
• deserts;
• forests;
• gardens;
• grasslands; and
• mountains.

Crab spiders therefore have diminutive life cycles and natural histories consistent with:

• the small sizes to which they mature, with the biggest females and littlest males respectively measuring 0.8 (20.32) and 0.08 inches (2.03 millimeters); and 
• the small niches which they occupy. 

Consistent with many other spider species, the crab spiderling is hatched from eggs deposited in silk-spun sacs on silk-fastened leaves or under stones. Female crab spiders join their eggs at the incubation location even though mothers often die of starvation or stress before the hatchlings emerge. Newborns and spiderlings therefore know what they need to survive communally, genetically or instinctually within the shared confines of their mass birthplace even though they interact rarely with their mothers and never with their fathers. For example, the crab spider species commonly known as flower, goldenrod, and heather spiders live as respectively white-, yellow-, or pink-bodied residents of ornamental plants -- daisies, goldenrods, and pink-spotted orchids -- whose colors they assume. 

The info-book Crab Spiders marks the second installment in the PowerKids Press release of 2014 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. of New York. In its role as learning tool or review summary, it therefore nudges into the Nightmare Creatures: Spiders! series spot between: 

• #1 Black Widow Spiders; 
• #3 Jumping Spiders; 
• #4 Orb-Weaver Spiders; 
• #5 Tarantulas; and 
• #6 Wolf Spiders. 

As in the case of all the other titles, it offers -- for third- to seventh-graders aged 8 to 12 years -- culturally enriching and educationally entertaining insights into spider family bio-geographies, life cycles, and natural histories, thanks to: 

• book designer Andrew Povolny; 
• editors Norman D. Graubart, Jennifer Way; 
• photo researcher Katie Stryker; and 
• writer Joanne Randolph.  

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

General distribution of crab spiders
drawn after World Spider Catalog 7.0, maintained until 2014 by Norman Ira Platnick (December 30, 1951-April 8, 2020): Sarefo, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Distribution.thomisidae.1.png

Goldenrod crab spider (Misumena vatia) camouflages in goldenrod (Solidago spp).
Richmond County, south central North Carolina: DrPhotoMoto (John Flannery), CC BY ND 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/drphotomoto/9959535596/

A crab spider face: pareidolia influences humans to discern familiarity, such as faces, in impossible associations.
Beltsville, Prince George's County, south central Maryland: USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab (Sam Droege), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/10058944465/

A crab spider (Thomisidae) feasts upon its prey, a Grey Pansy (Junonia atlites) butterfly dangling from Zinnia elegans flower.
Kadavoor, Kerala, southwestern India: Attribution: © 2010 Jee & Rani Nature Photography (License: CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crab_spider_feeding_Junonia_atlites_in_Kadavoor.jpg

Predatory crab spider is positioned in proximity to its prey, an ant, on a globe thistle (Echinops spp).
"The Crab Spider And The Ant"; Tuesday, July 15, 2014, at 20:30:18: Henry Burrows (foilman), CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/foilman/14894516173/

Crab spiders are always in ambush mode.
crab spider in the garden; Ampetsapetsa, Anamalanga Region, central Madagascar: Mika Andrianoelison from Antananarivo, Madagascar, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crab_Spider_(15832001475).jpg

Randolph, Joanne. 2014. Crab Spiders. PowerKids Press: Nightmare Creatures: Spiders! Series Title #2. New York, NY: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.