Bees are busy. They seem to disregard the surroundings, WORK WORK WORK is all they care about. At times it puts them in the path of danger. I've observed one such event recently.
A patch of topinambur caught my attention. On one of the flowers I've spotted a spider chilling with its legs touching the net to feel when it catches the prey. Unaware of the spider, a bee approached another flower, just beneath where the spider was sitting.
Gotta get that nectar, man!
As the bee ended with one flower, it proceeded to the one above. And that's when both the predator and the prey spotted each other. The spider seemed startled as it run away from the approaching bee. The bee also decided it might be a better option to choose another flower.
What the hell just happened!
The spider quickly returned to the flower below, probably to add some web, so no other intruder can catch it off guard from there.
I could not identify the spider species.
I've got similar situation from two years ago with different spider. A female wasp spider was sitting in the center of its web, waiting patiently.
A bee was switching from one flower to another just behind the deadly trap.
A bee on the right oblivious to the danger.
That particular bee went away safely, but it's not like bees cannot be trapped.
Bees are relatively dangerous insects for spiders when confronted directly, but once they are glued to the net, they have very little chance. Not a bee, but quite similar in that regard, a wasp fell prey to the cross spider.
By the way, I thought cross spiders always sit at the center of their webs when waiting for prey, but I've found this fella (or rather lass, judging by the size of its abdomen), clearly using the same tactics as the spider from the first photos.
