A pair of Crab spider

Two creatures but 16 eyes are looking at you.

Thomisidae Crab Spiders are  masters of camouflage with bright colors (female). This species of  spiders use two pairs of front legs held in front like a crab’s chelicerae. This is actually, a pose to strike the prey or to defend.

They do not rely on webs, but use it as “safety lines” and to build a nursery to lay eggs.

Spiders are lone ranger. It is a rare to see a female and male staying together such as this pair we saw in Sabah Tea Garden. In Google Images, there are hardly any photographs of a male crab spider.

To see male and female in pair is important because this helps us to identify the species of the male otherwise difficult to identify if found separately and single.

Though these crab spiders are common on flowers and leaves, it is generally the females that we see commonly. The males are very tiny to find.

As you can see from above photo the male is only about 10% the size of the female. (The female has a proportionately large abdomen)

Shortly after this photo taken , the tinny male spider escaped by dropping itself on to the ground and disappeared. Gone just like that for a rare discovery.

We missed a great opportunity of keeping an image of a male spider. Now I understand why it is so difficult to find an image of a male of this species in the internet.

But this female spider stay around for a few more image as following: