Crab Spider
Ambush! Can you spot the crab spider in this photo? …before it’s too late? Bill Seurer sends in this photo of a daffodil that his wife Lynn took last Spring. To point out the efficiency of the camouflage, Lynn says she didn’t know she was photographing a spider at all until she reviewed her flower pictures later.
Found it yet? You may need the larger version, or perhaps even the humongous version (wallpaper, anyone?) to see it. Here’s a hint: there is no part of a daffodil that is pink.
This photo, aside from being a beautifully-composed photo of a daffodil, is wonderful because it perfectly shows how crab spiders hunt: they perch atop the blossom of a flower and wait for a bee or fly to come by. The front pairs of legs of a crab spider are very long and very strong; they open these wide like the jaws of a trap and wait for prey.
Then they bite it in the face. What’s not to love? I respect that kind of honesty in a predator.
Fantastic photo. Thank you, Lynn!
Edit: I’m not sure what happened, but I think my browser just freaked out while editing this post and it overwrote it with a blank one. I have tried to reconstruct the post from memory.
Edit Edit: Credit given to Lynn, who took the picture. 
Scott said,
March 28, 2008 @ 7:55 am
That’s gorgeous.
Kestralyn said,
March 28, 2008 @ 8:21 am
Gotta love a straight-forward predator! I bite you in the face!
I think the spider adds a very cool dimension to the gorgeous flower photo.
Entr0physt said,
March 28, 2008 @ 8:25 am
“Honey, I’m h…?!”
*P’chewy CHOMP!*
I wonder what bee-face tastes like?
AJ said,
March 28, 2008 @ 1:54 pm
This is my second-favorite spider picture ever! Very cool
Eleanor said,
March 28, 2008 @ 2:14 pm
Very cool picture! And a neat story behind it too, if even the photographer didn’t realize the spider was there until later. I wish I were this lucky.
I know it would mess up the lovely composition, but is there any way I could get it in a 1440 x 900 sort of format for a wallpaper?
David Brady said,
March 28, 2008 @ 4:46 pm
Eleanor: how about this?
I cropped that one down, so you lose some of the flower. I can squish it down if you’d prefer (th image would be a bit blurry).
Eleanor said,
March 28, 2008 @ 5:49 pm
That’s great! Thanks.
Bill said,
March 28, 2008 @ 9:29 pm
My wife Lynn pointed out that (ah hem) she has a name. Oops, I suppose I should have mentioned that in my email with the photo…
David Brady said,
March 28, 2008 @ 9:48 pm
Bill: Whoops! Sorry, I credit ‘em as I receive ‘em; I never know when an omission is accidental or deliberate anonymizing. I’ve credited her. Sorry Lynn, and thank you for the photo!
Female Crab Spider said,
April 5, 2008 @ 9:25 am
[…] for how they hunt, spiders in this genus typically hang out in flowers and wait for some pollinator to come by. Then, as David Brady so eloquently put it, they bite it in the face. This unfortunately means that […]