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The Hidden Killer, Pt. 5 - _TNY_3994

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!

 

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

 

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

 

and here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52621540924/

 

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 which is at 1:1 magnification and another one here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/51650253463

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Uploaded on May 18, 2025
Taken on July 24, 2021