Barry Dent

Crab Spiders

Family Thomisidae

These smaller spiders- about 10 mm- are said not to catch their prey with webs, but rather “sit and wait”. They did all seem to be associated with small, untidy webs though. Perhaps a bit of ambush and a bit of slowing down the prey with a rudimentary web too. Anyway, they were pretty successful, with nearly all the crab spiders I found this Spring having a larger animal they had caught and bound up somewhat with silk so they could eat it at leisure.

There are 30 or more crab spider species in New Zealand and some can change their colour depending on their surroundings. I think you will agree that some of these ones are well camouflaged against the leaf they are on. This all means that identification can’t really be taken further than Family level.

The spider below is guarding her egg sac closely:

New Zealand Linen Flax

Linum monogynum

Yes, it is a flax. Evidently New Zealand is the only place where our Phormium species, wharariki and harakeke, are referred to as flaxes. Linum monogynum is closely related to the northern hemisphere linen flax, whose spun fibres are used to make linen and whose derived oil is linseed oil.

Linum is a subshrub of open spaces and can colonise the rank pasture a bit too. It can cope with the frequent salty gales.

A little plant to brighten an otherwise average spot.

(Part of an ongoing effort to photograph all the vascular plants on the island. Each species will get a page when I get enough reasonable photos.)