Thomisus crab spider

Description:

Thomisus onustus is a crab spider species in the genus Thomisus belonging to the family Thomisidae. Like other species of the family Thomisidae these crab spiders do not make a web, but wait in ambush for their prey on flowers. The spiders are disguised by assuming the same colour as the flower, fooling both insect and bird predators. The prey consists of flower-visiting insects of all species, such as hover flies, bees, wasps, butterflies or beetles, which are often several times larger than the spider. They take their prey with two powerful and highly enlarged front leg pairs and usually kill them by biting on the back of their neck. The pictured female spider was spotted with her prey, a honeybee, in Goritsa hill archaeological reserve, in the outskirts of Volos city, Greece.