Ok - back to the crab spider that was living in one of the peony flowers in our garden for today. This was a very tiny little spider, and today's shot gives a little more scale by backing up a little and showing more of the flower along with the spider.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/250 sec at f/16. Canon Speedlight 580EX II flash in auto mode and wireless control. Image Stabilization on. ISO 160. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

By backing up a little, I manage to show a little scale (though nothing near normal size). I think often times, folks think that these bugs I find are the size of my hand because of the magnification the macro lens produces. In reality (and if my math is correct) had an arm span of only about 9-11mm. Pretty tiny.

The other thing this shot shows is some of the behavior of the crab spider. (This part will probably creep out those of you who don't like spiders, so skip the rest of this paragraph if you're in that group). Crab spiders are pretty aggressive. They often take down prey much much larger than themselves, and they do that with those long, powerful, front legs. They lie in wait and pounce on their prey, holding it with those long legs while injecting their venom. Both crab spiders that I have photographed showed basically no fear of me at all, including threat displays and lunging forward towards my hands and the camera. Very impressive little attitudes. Despite their attitudes and ability to take down large prey, they are harmless to humans.

Often times, crab spiders live on flowers that are close to the color they are (some can slightly change their colors to match the flowers exactly), so this little guy living in a pink flower is kind of strange. The camouflage at work here is actually based on the pollen stamens in the flower. When hiding between the petals, this little spider was about the size and color of the yellow pollen stamens which are layered between the different petals in a peony flower. And it was very quick to move around the flower, quickly climbing between petals, crawling from one side to the other side of a petal, and traversing the whole flower with surprising speed - though it never moved very quickly, just very directly.

See - there are reasons why I am fascinated by little critters like this. I know they're often considered creepy or even scary, but they really are interesting creatures.

- Bill