When i see goldenrod crab spiders, they are camouflaging on a cosmos, but the cosmos is violet, and the spider is white, and not only mine, but other observations have this weird colouring, Example: yellow spider on white flower, so why is this?
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I thought I read recently that crab spiders take a few days to adjust their colors. Maybe you’re finding the new arrivals and the adjusted spiders are staying hidden.
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If so, what a perfect example of observer bias!
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How do bees see colours? Perhaps the white spider on violet cosmos is hidden from the vision of the prey.
I had a bright yellow crab spider on a cobalt blue Anchusa capensis. But the pink or white colourway would both be just as visible, to us.
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I believe it takes awhile for the spiders to change colors, about a week to go from yellow to white and much longer to go from white to yellow. The observations you’ve noticed are probably of spiders who have recently moved to a new flower or haven’t completely finished transitioning to a different camouflage color!
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Bees likely see crab spiders in the UV range
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I’m not sure if this overrides their vision in the visible-to-us range.
Here is a photo I took of a crab spider on an oxeye daisy under UVB light. The spider and the daisy are white in sunlight. Under UVB only, the daisy fluoresces pink whereas the spider looks white.
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