Crab Spider Waits for Prey
A crab spider (Diaea livens) waits patiently on a pipestem clematis (C. lasiantha, AKA chaparral clematis). Winter ants (Prenopeis imparis) forage all around. I watched this scene, off and on, for over two hours. As far as I could see, the spider moved only imperceptively during this time. Meanwhile, the ants foraged about, sometimes getting pretty close to the spider. Trail 14 south of Trail 8, near Searsville Lake, 3/20/2016, 8:09:30 am.