A warm welcome

Last week, I returned to Washington after four months of travels.  Of all the many things there were to do after getting home, one task near the top of my list was to search the garden for crab spiders.  Before leaving Washington in March, I had found just one crab spider in the yard.  How many were there now?  It took just a couple of minutes for me to locate the first crab spider, and then in quick succession I found several more, including this one: 

A juvenile crab spider on a daisy.

After bringing the tally up to six crab spiders, it was time for me to retreat out of the ~95°F heat and to turn to more mundane tasks.  However, the next morning, I took advantage of my jetlag and was out in the garden very early, while it was still cool.  During this second and more thorough search, I found ten more crab spiders.

A female Misumena vatia crab spider ready for some prey.

A couple of these I found not on flowers, but on foliage.  These spiders were either in transit between flowers or had opted for less conventional hunting sites.

A juvenile crab spider sitting at the tip of a rose stem.