To those who wait. Unless one is waiting in the wrong place...
The MO of a crab spider is to hide motionless and ready to grab a quick snack, usually near the tip of a plant that is in a zone of high insect activity and often somewhere that provides at least a hint of camouflage.
But this little one may go hungry a bit longer than it should have to. The only reason I found it, even though I was looking for just such a beastie, was due to the fact that it was just a bit shy of an ideal position: a little too far from the mountain mint flowers that were humming (literally) with nectaring insects of all sizes and persuasions, and a little too conspicuous in the darker green leaf of a trumpet honeysuckle vine wending its way through the mint patch.
Ever try to hold your arms out like that for extended periods? It's difficult. It hurts after a bit. (It was a favorite punishment of a teacher I once had for students who talked too much during class. Yes, speaking from experience and that's all I'm saying about it except once was enough to learn the lesson. That year.) Our little crab spider apparently thought so too; notice how the front legs have drooped a bit from the first photos. (Could be it was just nervous about the possibility that I might fall into the mint patch. I was.)
Shaped rather like a crab spider, but a quick search through a couple of guides didn't give me a name to pin to this gorgeous--and ridiculously fast; I don't usually bother to crank the sharpness slider to 100 and still post a fuzzy photo--wee little creature. Much to my amusement, there actually is a group of arachnids called "running crab spiders"…
