Sunday, March 15, 2009

Spider food



I inadvertently scared this grasshopper from wherever it was .... right into the web of this hungry spider. In a split second the spider descended onto the web to immobilize the victim in a straitjacket. Then it was all over for our long-legged friend. I came back to have a look some three hours later to find that the spider was still munching on its food. I had thought that it would have sucked out the liquids from the grasshopper, but as you can see from the images, the body tissues were being consumed too. As I was poking around too much, the spider fled the scene. In the top image, I removed the victim from the web to have a better look. I also rescued the butterfly, which was very much alive.

2 comments:

GingerV said...

I am emailing you an image of a house guest in Friburgo. the images are somewhat blurring, my little camera didn't due well - but thought you might like the bug... and I don't have anything to say about it in my blog. email to follow.

Anonymous said...

Steve, "I inadvertently scared" once two Orinoco geese that fle from the river bank and landed on the water. They were followed by 7 or 9 chicks that landed by them. All these ckicks were eaten by a school of piranhas that did not give them a chance to fly. i got that on tape, just in case you want to check it.

congrats for the blog and many thanks

gil serique