The problem with a lot of invertebrate life at the Weymouth Wetlands is that it doesn’t have common names. Misumena vatia is a superb looking spider and belongs to the crab spider family. It’s often found on either white or yellow flowers where it sits and waits for hungry insect to stop for a feed. They then pounce on their victim sinking their fangs into it. Their venom quickly paralyzes their prey which allows them to catch quite large insects such as hoverflies.
As you can see from this image taken earlier today at Radipole, it doesn’t exactly blend in with its chosen flower though regardless of that, it’s still caught a rather juicy hoverfly. Had it been on a white flower it probably would have been overlooked but thankfully we didn’t!