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Thomisidae feeding Junonia almana on Acmella ciliata-Kadavoor-2015-08-21-001
21 August 2015
- Classification
- Photograph
- Museum
- Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- CC BY-SA 4.0, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Kids profiles and older: it shows nature, places, still life or a children's book. How works are placed
About this work
A Thomisus species Thomisidae feeding a Junonia almana on a Acmella ciliata flower.
Older females require large amounts of relatively large prey to produce the best possible clutch of eggs. The female is able to undergo white to yellow or pink colour changes depending on the flower they are sitting on. These spiders change color by secreting a liquid yellow pigment into the outer cell layer of the body. This colour change facilitates camouflage on flower ambush sites and is completed within a few days.
They are sedentary spiders and is usually noticed only when one sees a strangely positioned, usually upside down, insect and upon investigation, the insect can be seen to be in the grips of a spider. They wait for flying insects to settle, patient and motionless, with outstretched legs. When the prey is within range, they close their powerful front legs, catching the insect which can be up to 10 times their size. The insect is then bitten behind the head and killed. The insides are dissolved with enzymes and sucked from the exoskeleton and the empty, perfect form of the insect is dropped to the ground.
