Green Flower Spider

Diaea species. Also known as crab spider. A New Zealand native. Length about 5mm.

There she sits, motionless on yarrow flowers, with her eight eyes watching in all directions, and her front four pollen-covered legs spread wide, waiting for a hapless little insect to come to sip nectar. Her bright green abdomen looks like a leaf bud, but her thorax is translucent and very hard to see in some light conditions. If disturbed she can vanish in a flash.

She's charming in large

One year ago- a robber fly that would be much too big for a flower spider.