During one of the recent ddays I took my camera and went to the grden hoping to get some nice insects. There was plently of bees and flies, even some butterflies were still around.
I know there are crab spiders on hunting on the flowers around. Nicce green or white ones that camouflage so well I can hardly spot them. And maybe they were around, but I didn't see any.
I found this one though enjoying his meal among the grasses. The hairy flower he is sitting on belongs to White dead-nettle which is a very common weed herb around.
Xysticus cristatus
It turns out it is a pretty common spider all over Europe. Crab spiders do not build webs to hunt, instead they will sit and wait patiently for a careless insect to get close enough for them to catch them.
They are not very big - maybe 1 cm and their prey is also rather small. This one had some fly I think, but they will also hunt ants. I have also seen a different type of crab spider catching a much bigger bee or a wasp.
When he was done with his food he just dropped the leftover and walked away :)
I found another one on a nearby flower...
...but he tried to hide as soon as I got closer and then run away.
Shot with Nikon D5500 + Sigma 105mm lens
All photos and text are my own.
