One of my favourite spiders is the Goldenrod Crab Spider. I often encounter them on top of hogweed. And, before I go any further, learn about the dangers of hogweed if you’ve any interest in nature and wildlife, I’m always very careful not to touch hogweed, because it’s, quite, quite bad for humans:
Giant hogweed is more dangerous than native hogweed, but I’m always careful around native hogweed also, because it’s less dangerous, but not completely safe either.
So these spiders are often on top of hogweed. They often stretch their legs out, like in the top picture, as if they want to give you a hug! And they have super cool green stripes.
And their camouflage is excellent. At the risk of sounding ominous, that’ll become relevant later. What do I mean risk of sounding ominous? I just guaranteed it!
So, why are they called “crab” spiders? Because they can walk like crabs! Sideways!
I never made the connection in my head as to why they were called “crab” spiders until I saw it for myself. I saw a goldenrod walking up the stem of a plant, then suddenly walking left, then suddenly walking right, without turning, the spider could just move left or right with great ease, without having to turn their body at all. It was quite a sight to see!
So that’s it! Goldenrod crab spiders are awesome, and there won’t be any shocking confrontation with the fact that the world of wildlife, while wonderful, can also be quite horrible and cruel. The post is over now. Goodbye!
Except, no.
A few weeks ago, while out doing my wildlife photography, I encountered a dead golden dung fly on top of hogweed. I was a bit saddened, there is a price to pay by getting seriously interested in insects, it starts to pain you to see that they have died. But I was also curious to know how this creature came to this sad fate. Disease? An injury? Maybe if I photographed the insect and showed it to some people who knew far more about insects then me, they could shed some light on what happened. So I brought my camera home and started organizing my photographs, and that’s when I saw, this.
That’s right, when I was wondering what had became of this poor golden dung fly, I was staring at the answer the whole time, but I couldn’t see. Because the goldenrod crab spider was so well camouflaged, that I couldn’t see them until I looked at the photograph. I don’t know was it some sort of instinctive fear of predators, or feeling a certain horror in not being able to see a killer animal that was right in front of me (though granted goldenrods are not dangerous to humans) but I got an anxiety attack, knowing that there was an invisible killer in front of me the whole time.
So, let’s get the obvious point out of the way first. Goldenrods gotta eat. If I was to go out and become a valiant defender of instectoid victims of these spiders, well then, the goldenrods would starve to death. So, don’t get me wrong. I do “get it”. It’s not very nice, but there isn’t really anything we can do about it.
But it has brought up some complicated emotions in me. I knew goldenrod crab spiders weren’t exactly vegans. So in one sense, I wasn’t surprised to see this.
I suppose it brought up a kind of a paradox that I’ve been wrestling with since I got seriously into wildlife. It’s so relaxing, to just watch a bee, or a spider, going about their day. All the worries about your own life, or the future of humanity, just melt away when you’re watching a bee visiting a flower, or a dock bug silently walking across a leaf.
It’s so peaceful.
But, maybe it’s not.
Often watching these wild creatures go about their day is a way of taking a break from the turbulence in my own mind, but the lives they live are much more dangerous, much more violent, than my own. I don’t fear for my life in the way that an insect, or a spider, or a bird does.
But what do we know about what a fly experiences anyway? Could it be that their brains are so simple, that killing them means no more than switching off a computer? Could it be that when they fly away in fear of the sight of a human, that is their brain, for want of a better way of putting it, following a script, and they’re not actually experiencing fear at all?
We don’t know for certain what “goes on” in a fly’s mind. It could be that they don’t experience fear. It could be that when they care for their young, they are just following a program.
But there’s no way to know. If fear and anxiety was a useful evolutionary development for humans, and for other animals, as a way of getting us to flee when there is a dangerous animal around, then it’s certainly not implausible that flies feel fear, though definitely not the same kind of fears that humans feel.
But, maybe some insects, don’t feel anything at all, and maybe they are nothing more than sophisticated computer programs. And maybe goldenrods only feed on such insects. So maybe there’s nothing to worry about. So, everything is fine, as long as goldenrod crab spiders don’t eat bees everything is fine!
Oh.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misumena_vatia
Look at this Wikipedia article. And look at that goldenrod crab spider eating a beautiful orange belted bumble bee! Asshole! Well that’s it golden rod crab spiders, all you had to do was not target bees, one of my favourite animals. That’s it, we’re done! We can no longer be friends! That’s it!
Joking of course. Learning that goldenrod crab spiders eat bees, hasn’t changed the fact that goldenrods are one of my favourite type of spiders. But it does lead to, we’ll say, certain contradictions in my thought that I don’t know have I properly processed yet.
If I see a bee, I’m thinking, “What a lovely bee, I hope the bee lives the happiest and most wonderful life that a bee can live.” And when I see a goldenrod crab spider, I’m thinking, “What a lovely goldenrod crab spider, I hope the spider lives the happiest and most wonderful life that a spider can live.”
These things are obviously not mutually compatible.
Maybe there are goldenrods that go their whole life without eating bees, but, it would be an unwise goldenrod indeed that even hesitated to strike if they came across a bee, it could mean certain death by starvation if they hesitate to take this opportunity to nourish themselves.
Where this gets complicated still, is that, while I haven’t encountered much research yet on whether spiders have emotions ( which isn’t to say there isn’t such research on it, just that I haven’t encountered it yet), there does seem to be more evidence that bees do. Look at this adorable video of bees pushing wooden balls around. AWWWWWWWWW!!!!!
They’re pushing wooden balls around! I could watch this all day!
The important thing to note is that the bees were not in any way encouraged to play with the wooden balls by an incentive such as a sugar treat. It does seem to be the case, unless other research demonstrates otherwise, that bees experience joy. So, if I was a betting man, I would bet on bees having a rich inner experience. And that when they die, it’s comparable, or at least, somewhat comparable with a “more complex” animal, like a bird or a dog dying.
This led me to a horrifying thought. What if bees have a rich inner experience, and spiders do not? If spiders think and feel, and are not simply “automatons”, then the spider killing the bee is simply one tragedy that prevents another, the bee had to die so the spider could live. Not nice, but okay.
But, if spiders do not have a rich inner experience, if they don’t think or feel, then it seems to me, that every time they kill an insect like a bee, it is simply a tragedy. That it’s impossible to be neutral on it. That it is simply a horrible thing when it happens.
This post may give people a greater hint into my own psychology. It could have just been a few pictures of goldenrods and some info on their amazing biology. But nothing seems to be that simple with me. I get very philosophical, I have a tendency to think of things from every angle. So, getting into wildlife could never have been “just a bit of fun” for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love every minute of photographing insects, arachnids, and birds, and when I have other commitments on a given day, I am often sort of “on edge” until I can go to the park with my camera, almost like a smoker waiting for a cigarette. So it has brought my life a lot of joy. But also, it’s gotten me to reflect on the sadness of the animal world.
I remember my bird detecting app a few days ago detecting a buzzard, and being overjoyed, I could finally get a photograph of a majestic buzzard! The buzzard flew off and I didn’t get that picture, but I remember the contradiction going on in my head. Buzzards like to eat some of my favourite birds. Maybe they eat song thrushes, one of my favourites. There’s a song thrush that lives in the Glen River Park, and as soon as I hear their beautiful song, my heart absolutely soars. Maybe if that song goes silent, it will be because another bird ate the song thrush. But, that other bird isn’t callous, or cruel, they just want to make sure that their babies don’t starve. And maybe that’s why it’s hard. It would be so much easier if there was a villian. So much easier if the buzzard, or other predatory birds, were killing birds because they were pure evil. Then we could just hate the buzzard and everything would be simple.
But the buzzard just wants their babies to survive. And just wants to survive themselves. Thanks nature for leaving us a quite complicated emotional mess to sort through, I really appreciate this!
So I’ll finish with one last picture of an awesome and murdery goldenrod crab spider. And I’ll just make one last request to the goldenrods, could ye not just consider giving up bees? Come on, I gave up meat, just eat something other than bees! Have you considered tofu?
Ponderings Of An Autist 
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