I felt uncomfortable taking photos of butterflies captured by predators, but I guess that’s how nature works and that we humans should just observe and not interfere.
Many butterflies seem to fall prey to crab spiders that lurk in flowers head and wait for their victims. Some seem to be camouflaged according to the colour of the flower, but I’d be interested to hear if this is actually the case or just co-incidence.
Here are two crab spider shots: 1033 is a female large white (pieris brassicae) where you can just see the spider’s legs at the head end, and the unnatural angle of the butterfly’s head indicates that something is wrong. Often if you get too close and a butterfly doesn’t fly off as expected, it’s because it can’t. 2496 is a female ilex hairstreak (satyrium ilicis) that had been seized by a crab spider, but it did have the effect of revealing the upperside which would not otherwise be seen as these satyrium species always rest with closed wings. I believe that 2496 is a female ilicis (and I’m guessing based on the extent of the orange patch) of the form cerri which has extensive orange patches on the forewing.
7684: this large vivid-red beetle has what seems to be a hairstreak, probably ilex.
4327: this still gives me the creeps. I don’t know what the predator is, but it was perfectly camouflaged, and indeed it was quite hard to see even when it was clear that something was holding the unfortunate bergers clouded yellow (colias alfacariensis) and munching its way through it.
I think we would count ourselves lucky that these monsters come butterfly-sized, not human-sized!
) do more harm than good, and rely on judgments they have no right to make.
