Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Can you spot the predator?


I'll give you a hint: the predator in question is an arthropod, but not an insect.

If you can't spot it, don't be too hard on yourself... neither could the ant in the center of this blanketflower.

The predator I refer to is a spider from the family Thomisidae, commonly referred to as 'crab spiders'. (If you still haven't spotted it, the spider is on the left side of the central reddish disk). Most crab spiders, this one included, employ an ambush hunting strategy. They simply sit tight on or beside a flower and wait for insects to come to them.

Our predator should be more obvious in this one....

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