Spyder's meal...

[Alfredo]

...good for loooong time, I guess
Ciao!
Alfredo



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[JonathanD]

I watched a spider attack one of these once and then bodily throw it off a wall to entangle it into it's web. The logistics, tactics and thought that went into the whole operation really surprised me as it must have been thinking at least four steps in advance. It opens your eyes into what we perceive as intelligence.

 

[Paganwolf]

Its delivering a bite to one of the chinks in the beetles defences, at the leg joint, great pic that!

 

[ged]

I watched a spider attack .....

A couple of years ago I saw a spider take another spider on the ceiling in our living room in France. The planning that went into it was astonishing. Up until then I'd had no idea that they could do anything like that. The final bit of the attack was jumping about three inches, grabbing the unsuspecting prey and pulling it off the ceiling so that both were hanging by a cunningly prepared thread. The prey was as big as its attacker, but of course it had no purchase on anything so could do nothing about it and was quickly subdued.

 

[JonathanD]

A couple of years ago I saw a spider take another spider on the ceiling in our living room in France. The planning that went into it was astonishing. Up until then I'd had no idea that they could do anything like that. The final bit of the attack was jumping about three inches, grabbing the unsuspecting prey and pulling it off the ceiling so that both were hanging by a cunningly prepared thread. The prey was as big as its attacker, but of course it had no purchase on anything so could do nothing about it and was quickly subdued.

That was what I saw. I had watched the whole attack, but like the beetle didn't see that coming. There it was dangling by one thread and utterly helpless.

 

[hiho]

great picture,

still reading the "Uploaded with ImageShack.us"

 

[TomBartlett]

There's a wildlife program I saw (I think Life in the Undergrowth) where a jumping spider saw an insect of a plant too far to jump on, so it climbed down its plant and up the plant it's lunch was sitting on, and attacked it from behind! That shows some sort of long term memory, planning and other abilities I wished these creepy crawlies didn't have!

 

[Alfredo]

Thanks God that spyders are not big as a cat, or....brrrrrr....

 

[Snarf]

It opens your eyes into what we perceive as intelligence.

I think spiders are one of the most intelligent species around, they have such cunning abilities, they can survive in the most extremes of weather and have evolved to cope with their surroundings like the The fisher spider (Dolomedes triton).

They are just gorgeous

 

[Harvestman]

The spider looks like one of the smaller species of Theridion (comb-foot spiders). Their web consists of high-tension lines with blobs of glue on the ends that are very weakly anchored to the ground. When something blunders into the thread, it sticks to the thread, but the anchor snaps, the thread recoils, whipping the prey into the air. Result: insect on a string! Otherwise known as a spider's lunch.

I've seen Black Widow spiders (which are in the same spider family) catch scorpions much bigger than themselves in this way.

 

[Alfredo]

The spider looks like one of the smaller species of Theridion (comb-foot spiders). Their web consists of high-tension lines with blobs of glue on the ends that are very weakly anchored to the ground. When something blunders into the thread, it sticks to the thread, but the anchor snaps, the thread recoils, whipping the prey into the air. Result: insect on a string! Otherwise known as a spider's lunch.

I've seen Black Widow spiders (which are in the same spider family) catch scorpions much bigger than themselves in this way.

Thanks, really interesting!