
Generally speaking, predators tend to be sharper in look and sleeker in build than their vegetarian counterparts. But the need to outwit both prey as well as other hunters can also result in strategies that defy all expectation. This assassin bug nymph, for one, coats its body with debris and the corpses of its victims, a habit that somehow reduces the chances of it ending up on the menu of other lethal stalkers.
Were it not for the tell-tale eyes, the flattened profile and lichen shades of this sparassid(?) spider would have rendered it invisible on the bark of a forest tree. Most birds and bugs would have no inkling of the arachnid as it scans the trunk for insects that land in its line of sight to live their final moments.
Camouflage is of little concern for damselflies, however. This collared threadtail on a fallen twig near a forest stream had little difficulty intercepting a much smaller insect in the shadowy hours of transition between day and dark.
Protoneurid zygopterans seldom stray from the shade. Libellulids, however, worship the sun, appearing in strength from secret chambers to bask in the warmth of midmorning rays. Among the smallest of the family, the pygmy percher, is little larger than many damselflies, and the males defend minute territories on marshy fringes with a ferocity that matches their more robust kin.
A convergence of sorts seems to have taken place with asilids, which have honed the flight capabilities of their order to rival the aerobatics of odonates. The thorax has become a sculptured mass of wing muscles and like dragonflies, robberflies appear to have legs that can only cling and grasp. There's no middle ground, it seems, between the thrill of rapid pursuit and the unbearable lightness of being still.
Motion is a double-edged sword for ambushers such as this fish-tailed nymph on the fissured trunk of a tembusu. The darting of even tinier springtails aroused visible excitement in the high frequency wagging of broad cerci and stop-start attempts to dog the collembolans. Without these faint movements, the young mantid would fade from view and feed the fantasies of those who want to wander through the woods and suffer no chance of seeing something wild.
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