Paul Harrison, Crab Spiders of Western Australia (ANIMAL 2021)

Crab spiders are ambush predators that target honey bees. Bees have an affinity for symmetry and are drawn to flowers that exhibit this. The crab spider enhances the apparent symmetry of the flower and can increase the UV-reflectance of its body to further attract the bee to its flower. Native Australian bees, which have co-evolved with the crab spiders recognise the danger and will avoid these flowers but the introduced honeybee does not and is the prey of choice for these fearsome hunters.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.