The comment on the post below, from Chatou11, reminded of how much I enjoy finding and watching the Thomisadae which are one of the spider species commonly referred to as Crab Spiders or Flower Crab Spiders because of their hunting habits. The ones I find are ambush predators. They hide away with a drag line spun behind them and wait for prey to come to them. A drag line is just a single bit of silk which is attached to their hideaway in case they miss their attack. Sometimes I find them by shaking a branch and seeing if there is anything that falls out and climbs back quickly.

I don’t know all the species and it is confusing sometimes because they can take on the color of their hideout over a few days. Here are a few shots where I have found them in action.

I didn’t realize I had this one. I was trying to get a shot of this tiny moth and it wasn’t until I was home and post processing when I realized that it had already been attacked by a small spider that was riding along on it’s left wing. This is the same shot with a very tight crop to show the spider in the second image.

One of the other species which is called a crab spider is the crab-like Orb Weaver – Gasteracantha cancriformis it actually looks more like a crab with it’s hard shell.