Hidden Stick, Crouching Spider

The flowers of springtime are welcome sights, whether in orchards, woodland hillsides or gardens.  They can sometimes hide danger for the unwary insect, though.

 

I like the clever little crab spiders that camouflage themselves to closely match their hiding places and lie in wait for their prey. This one is tucked away, utilizing a bit of debris on a trillium's sepal as a perch, hoping to launch a surprise attack on an unwary visitor.

This one has taken on the reddish-orange coloring of the apple blossom anthers. I think it's pretty, in its own hidden ninja sort of way.  

Finally, this stick insect has managed to capture an unsuspecting fly. It hides along stems and twigs, rather than on blossoms, but is every bit as dangerous to its prey.  I rarely see the younger stick bugs like this one, but rather their adult selves that look far more like twigs. When I was a child, spotting one of these tricky fellows was always fun. I don't know how rare they are, but sightings are pretty uncommon, in my experience, so their ruse of hiding among the trees obviously works quite well for them.