-Dashboard- White Crab Spider (Thomisus Spectabilis)

-Dashboard-

White Crab Spider (Thomisus Spectabilis)

The White Crab Spider, also known as flower spider, is a wonderful creation of nature. This Spider has almost semi transparent head and legs. Body is white with small black spots on the outside corners of body. Some crab spiders can be yellow in colour. It is very quick and when approached, it runs away immediately. The fat legs and typical form of body give it the appearance of a crab. This spider lives among the plants and on flowers. Its food is small insects and butterflies. White spider captures its prey with strong front legs. The size of female spider is normally around 10 mm and that of male is around 6 mm. The male spider is often reddish brown in colour. The bite of this spider creates pain and swelling in human beings.

I noticed the pair of this spider in the garden of my office. This pair was dwelling on a pretty flower. The bight cloudy weather provided ideal light for a click. I had a Canon Powershot A 580 camera with me at that time. Due to the small size of these spiders it was wise to set the camera at Macro Mode. I clicked 3-4 shots and this is one of them.

The ISO of camera was set at 80 and the exposure was approximately f-5.6 - 1/30 sec.

(Personal experience: The macro mode of compact and prosumer digital cameras is generally of great help while clicking tiny objects.)

--Dr. Pankaj Sharma