Dear All
More from my travels in the bush. At a spiny succulent euphorbia in Laikipia the other day I was looking at some Groove-winged Flower Beetles. These are tiny beetles who feed on flowers, often in groups. Here are a couple pictures of the beetles – and what I took to be a happily visiting fly as well. On peering closer I noticed the fly wasn’t really moving even when I accidentally bumped the plant. Then I looked closer (as one always should with insects) and guess who was sitting there !?
Can you spot the interloper in the pictures below?
Yes – this was an amazing flower spider beautifully camouflaged to look just LIKE the euphorbia flowers!
Even more amazing – the fat yellow one is the female, she is much larger than the male, who rides around on her back – you can see him here – the reddish brown one sitting on her! This difference in sizes is not unusual in spiders where females are typically the big beefy ones and males are tiny and weak…
More from the wonderful world of bugs soon!
AMAZING! FANTASTIC! GREAT!
I was looking for pics of the world to use in a text about the bugs/animals that lives in my sucullents potts, and I was not founding ecological interactions (just the photos I’ve taken by myself on my pots). And yours are just great!
Gonna link your blog in my post!
(ps.: sorry the bad english, i’m still learning)
I knew you were talking about a spider but I could not spot her until you pointed her out. Amazing!
Recently National Geographic had a feature in the magazine about camouflage. Really interesting stuff how far evolution has gone with some creatures, especially with mimicry has the case with this spider.
Thanks for sharing
Amazing! Dino you must have an extra set of eyes!!! It took me so long to see the spider 🙂
Peels of little giggles when I read about the small, weak, males. Aaaah – life with three daughters 😉