Unless you’re a butterfly.

This one was so bright and pretty that we saw him from the back door.

Rick West, arachnologist in residence at birdspiders.com identified it as a Misumena vatia in the family Thomisidae or “flower spider” … and not because he looks like a flower (although that could have been another reason). It’s because they’re often found on flowers where they hunt. They’re also called “goldenrod spiders”. If this one had been on one of the little desert marigolds, we never would have seen him. They can even change colors to match the color of the flowers that are in bloom.

Unlike other spiders, flower spiders don’t spin webs. They’re hunters. Flower spiders will sit motionless on a flower with their two long pairs of legs stretched out and waiting for a butterflies, bees, flies, or something else to visit the flower. Then they attack and immobilize their prey. Their venom lets them attack much bigger insects.