My backyard has been looking very dry and brown from the summer heat. Not hoping for much, I went out in search of life. A few plants are still blooming and I was very pleased to see a small crab spider on one of the first flowers I checked.
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| A crab spider and ladybug on a common hollyhock (Alcea rosea) flower. |
Then there was another... and another. On the bush pictured below, I found a tiny crab spider on almost every flower!
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| A tiny crab spider sits between the two petals on the right side of the flower. |
I watched in suspense as a small bee visited one of these flowers. However, just as for
a previously featured crab spider, the little crab spider on this flower posed no threat for the bee. The real danger for the bee came immediately after it left the flower -- and flew straight into a funnel-web.
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| A funnel-web spider eating a small bee. |
The funnel-web spider, responding to the motion of the web, sprang up at the bee -- but missed. The bee managed to force its way through the web and then sat on a nearby leaf for a few moments, grooming off the bits of web that had come with it. (The bee being eaten by the funnel-web spider in the photograph was an earlier catch.)
I then decided to check the front yard. There it was the same: spiderlings everywhere.
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| A tiny crab spider sitting on an aster and eating something even smaller. |
The little one pictured above had found something even smaller to eat. It won't be very long, though, before some of the dozens of young crab spiders have grown large enough to hunt bees.
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