Uploaded August 2019 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Flower Crab Spiders (Family Thomisidae) do not build webs to catch their prey, instead, they are ambush predators. They usually sit motionless in flowers and grab visiting insects such as bees, flies or butterflies with their crab-like front legs. Some species can even change color to match the flower they are on.
But this species with the scientific name Epicadus heterogaster from the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador can be found on green leaves and mimics itself a flower by reflecting ultraviolet (UV) light, just as flowers do, in order to attract pollinating insects. Even its movements are jerky, like a flower swaying in the wind. It produces silk for safety lines, but in this video it gets somewhat entangled into its own silk. As most spiders it has four pairs of eyes.
Flower Crab Spiders (Family Thomisidae) do not build webs to catch their prey, instead, they are ambush predators. They usually sit motionless in flowers and grab visiting insects such as bees, flies or butterflies with their crab-like front legs. Some species can even change color to match the flower they are on.
But this species with the scientific name Epicadus heterogaster from the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador can be found on green leaves and mimics itself a flower by reflecting ultraviolet (UV) light, just as flowers do, in order to attract pollinating insects. Even its movements are jerky, like a flower swaying in the wind. It produces silk for safety lines, but in this video it gets somewhat entangled into its own silk. As most spiders it has four pairs of eyes.
