The Hidden Killer, Pt. 3 (Cropped) - _TNY_3887

Walking towards the old miller's cottage at Åva-Stensjödal I noticed a green-veined white (Pieris napi) sitting on a yellow hawkweed flower (Hiearacium sp.).

 

"Nice!", I thought. A bit of a weird position, but still a potentially cool shot if it doesn't fly away.

 

So I managed to snap a shot with it still there when I began suspecting there was more to this scene than I had thought.

 

And upon further inspection I realized that the risk of it flying off was pretty slim - as this butterfly had turned into lunch for a female goldenrod crab spider (Misumena vatia) in yellow mode which made for a downright awesome camouflage!

 

This is a tighter crop on a previous shot, but I think it works nicely when you see a bit more detail.

 

Two more of those shots can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/51340047179/

 

and here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/51810360065/

 

After getting some shots of it I continued in pursuit of other motives - but when walking back I had the MP-E65 mm on the camera instead of the 100 mm f/2.8 and that's when I saw that Mrs. Spider was still eating the butterfly!

 

The MP-E65 obviously let me get closer so I took a couple of additional shots, including this one at 2:1 magnification: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/51650253463

 

This one is one of the first set with the 100mm. Straight for the jugular, right?

 

And another from the first session with the 100mm here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52621540924/

Done