I don’t know whether it’s the time of year or the weather conditions but I’m seeing quite a lot of Flower crab spiders (Misumena vatia), mostly white so presumably male – the females, according to the Wildlife Trust website, are not able to change their colour to match their surroundings.

I was rather tempted to make this blog’s title a pun on their having eight eyes (‘Aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye’, or ‘The eyes have it’) but resisted – though, as you see, I still couldn’t help but mention them. Just imagine what it must be like to have so many eyes – what do they see?

In an attempt to photograph all those eyes, I managed to get quite close to one particular beastie but quickly backed off when it began to open its legs – they are not the open arms of welcome, but rather the snatch of death!