I was out in the garden this morning and happened to glance over the the rose bush and saw a small spider making a meal of fly. I had the long lens on the camera, which isn't ideal for this sort of shot, but I started taking pictures anyway. Here's what happened. Apologies for the lack of sharpness in some of the shots.
Small spider dealing with a fly
It's making a decent job of it, so it seems.
But a larger, more dangerous predator is lurking
The wasp attacks the spider
The outcome was inevitable
The wasp eventually dropped the spider and flew off. Strange encounter, and I need to research what caused the wasp to attack.
anonymous
23 Jul 2007Venger writes:
Not a crab spider – its a Theridiidae, a comb footed spider, looks like a Enoplognatha ovata.
The wasp looks like a common wasp – so unlikely to be parasitic egg laying – looks like predatory attack.
SittingFox
23 Jul 2007Yes, I was wondering if the wasp was a parasitoid but I'm not sure what kind of wasp this is. If it's a common wasp, which it appears to be, then it might have been an aborted predatory attack instead! (To be honest I haven't really spent much time trying to tell the various wasp species apart…)
Words
23 Jul 2007It was very odd! I'm not sure what type of spider it is, but initial googling suggests the wasp may have been laying an egg! I'll try and find out more.
SittingFox
23 Jul 2007Good grief, what a strange sighting! :eyes:
That's a crab spider isn't it?
chthoniid
23 Jul 2007I agree with Venger- not a crab-spider. Wasp looks like a Vespulid, so not parasitic.
Very nice capture of events by the way 🙂
Dudley
23 Jul 2007Great capture and Awesome!
anonymous
23 Jul 2007Zachary writes:
I agree, great sequence! Wasps that look like that are called "yellow jackets" in the US, I don't know if they're called that in England. But they are the most aggressive wasp here and sting for the slightest reason.
Flying Red Fox Blog
23 Jul 2007Nice selection of pics, i tried to take a pic of a wasp yesterday but it kept swarming at me so i abandoened that idea lol 😛
Words
23 Jul 2007Venger, thanks for the spider identification. I found this page on the spider, which has better pictures of it. And for confirming that the wasp was just hungry!
Zachary – we sometimes call them yellow jackets here as well, but usually just go 'arrgh a wasp!' 😉
Mark – wise move!