♀ Flower Crab Spider with Prey

Description:

small yellow female crab spider with prey (fruit fly); "Thomisus is a sedentary spider and is usually noticed only when one sees a strangely positioned, usually upside down, insect and upon investigation, the insect can be seen to be in the grips of a spider. Thomisus waits for flying insects to settle, patient and motionless, with outstretched legs. She can detect them from 20mm and when within a range of 5-10mm, Thomisus closes her powerful front legs, catching the insect which can be up to 3 times her size. The insect is then bitten behind the head and killed. The insides are dissolved with enzymes and sucked from the exoskeleton and the empty, perfect form of the insect is dropped to the ground." ~biodiversityexplorer.org

Habitat:

spotted on the caper bush in my desert garden