The weather is warm and sunny; autumn still feels like a second spring, so I drove to one of the meadows in the area between the villages of Liznjan and Shishan. I stopped by the side of the road, about six or seven kilometers from where I live, and started sniffing around the meadow where, right at the edge where the asphalt meets the vegetation, I left my car.
This is Thomisus onustus, a crab spider from the Thomisidae family. Females of this species can change color like chameleons. They can match the color of their body to the color of the flower on which they plan to ambush prey. Possible colors include pink, light green, shiny yellow, and white. However, you can't easily observe that change in real time becouse is very slow. It takes several days to be completed. The spider in the above photograph is a female.
This wide shot shows the plant on which I found the spider. Its scientific name is Centaurea jacea.
This is Thomisus onustus, again. The same female you saw in the opening shot. These spiders don't use flowers only as hunting grounds, a place to wait for pollinators; they also feed on nectar and pollen, especially if insects are scarce. The following photograph...
...is an up-close portrait of the Centaurea jacea flower.
Here you can see the second Thomisus onustus spider I found on the same plant.
This one's base color is also white, but its legs and abdomen have plenty of red and pink. In this and the previous photograph, the spider, a much smaller Thomisus onustus than the first one I showed you, is resting in a pose that makes it look like some tiny protuberance or a bud on the plant's stem. The spider is resting, not waiting in ambush. The color isn't inconspicuous, but the shape doesn't scream spider if you are looking at it with the naked eye. A bit later...
...the spider got active and started moving towards the flower at the top of the stem. One of these two photographs was taken with the flash, the other without it. Can you tell which one shows the scene in natural, ambient light?
Once it reached the involucre at the base of the flower, the tiny spider became very hard to notice.
Here you can see another Centaurea jacea portrait. This time, the flower is shown from a different angle. Right under the florets and petals, you can clearly see the pretty long involucre I mentioned before. If you explore all the litlle details in the shot, you'll notice the legs of the spider on one of the leaves under the flower.
This is the Picris hieracioides flower.
Here you can see the entire plant with four lovely flowers and some buds. On one of the buds...
...a yellow Thomisus onustus was resting.
Once it moved towards the flower, I had the oportunity to get a better shot. This spider is even smaller than the last one, but isn't the smallest Thomisus onustus I found today. The yellow body with red markings is the perfect mimetic combination for the outer part of the Picris hieracioides flower.
This very small, completely yellow Thomisus onustus, a spiderling, really is only about a third of the size of the previous one I showed you. This is definitely the smallest spider I photographed today, and I found it on the same Picris hieracioides plant.
Here you can see another plant of the same kind.
When I used the macro lens to take a better, more up-close look at the center of the Picris hieracioides flower shown in this photograph...
...I noticed a group of tiny ants collecting the nectar. These insects are extremely small. You can't recognize them as ants with the naked eye becouse they are just moving dots without a macro lens or strong magnifying glass. I can't tell you the name of the species.
Some Picris hieracioides have already produced seeds. Both flowers and seeds look very similar to those of the moderately closely related Taraxacum officinale, the common dandelion, in other words.
Here you can see another Centaurea jacea plant. This one has only one fully developed flower on display. On the nearby grass...
...I photographed another spider. This one belongs to the Pisauridae family.
The scientific name of the species is Pisaura mirabilis.
This leafhopper from the Cicadellidae family was resting on the upper surface of the Centaurea jacea leaf. I'm pretty sure that it belongs to the Deltocephalinae subfamily, but I can't tell you exactly what species this is. Could be Exitianus capicola; it sure looks like one, but there are quite a few very look-alike species present in the area.
This small wasp from the Ichneumonidae family (Can't tell you the name of the species) was resting on another leaf of the same plant. It was getting dark when I took this photograph. Many diurnal insects were getting ready to spend the night resting.
This is a species of mint. Its scientific name is Mentha arvensis. Among the stems and fragrant leaves of this plant...
...I found a mantis. This is a female Ameles decolor, commonly known as the Mediterranean dwarf mantis. The wings are completely developed in males.
As the night was approaching, small moths started entering the scene. Here you can see one of them.
It belongs to the Geometridae family. The scientific name of the species is Rhodometra sacraria.
And that's it. The post ends here. Hope you enjoyed this tour around an ordinary roadside meadow. As always here on Hive, the photographs are my work.
The following links will take you to the sites with more information about the protagonists of today's post. I found some stuff about them there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomisus_onustus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaurea_jacea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picris_hieracioides https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pisaura_mirabilis https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exitianus_capicola https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichneumonidae https://www.plantea.com.hr/poljska-metvica/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ameles_decolor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodometra_sacraria
