Tiny Crab Spider
This crab spider managed to convey the ambivalence of the tiniest predators nicely: It waits here for prey to wander in front of its hidey hole, but only if it is prey smaller than a millimeter or two!
Crab spiders have long front and second legs for grabbing prey as it wanders past. A common tactic of larger crab spiders is to perch on a flower petal and grab flies and bees that come for the nectar. This juvenile spider is much too small for that just yet: barely 2mm across! For now it must be content with dark crevices, waiting for gnats and mites to pass by.
A distinguishing trait of all spiders is that they all use silk, but as we learn from crab spiders this does not necessarily mean that they make webs. Crab spiders make their egg sacs from silk and may make small cocoons when they molt, but other than that they’re just an eight-legged bug.
