Crab spider on a California Aster flower - tiny!
Here is another shot of a tiny Crab Spider (Thomisidae) on a flower of native California Aster (Corethrogyne filaginifolia aka Lessingia filaginifolia, Asteraceae) in the woods today. This is the same spider as my [Previous] photo, and it might be the same spider I showed in this photo a few days ago - it's on a different flower in the same place. The spider is really tiny, about 550 pixels in this 1:1 macro shot, which comes to 2.2 mm - less than 1/10 inch. (See here for how I figure.) I usually figure that the yellow disk flowers in the center are 1/8 inch across, and they are indeed 830 pixels across which comes to 3.3 mm or 1/8 inch. By the same reckoning, the violet petals are about 1/4 inch long. I believe the spider is another genus Mecaphesa with that hairy abdomen, and I'm not sure if it's a juvenile or maybe it just is that size. Arachtober 28b. (San Marcos Pass, 28 October 2019)
Crab spider on a California Aster flower - tiny!
Here is another shot of a tiny Crab Spider (Thomisidae) on a flower of native California Aster (Corethrogyne filaginifolia aka Lessingia filaginifolia, Asteraceae) in the woods today. This is the same spider as my [Previous] photo, and it might be the same spider I showed in this photo a few days ago - it's on a different flower in the same place. The spider is really tiny, about 550 pixels in this 1:1 macro shot, which comes to 2.2 mm - less than 1/10 inch. (See here for how I figure.) I usually figure that the yellow disk flowers in the center are 1/8 inch across, and they are indeed 830 pixels across which comes to 3.3 mm or 1/8 inch. By the same reckoning, the violet petals are about 1/4 inch long. I believe the spider is another genus Mecaphesa with that hairy abdomen, and I'm not sure if it's a juvenile or maybe it just is that size. Arachtober 28b. (San Marcos Pass, 28 October 2019)