Ok, so I ditched my earlier photo (and put it on yesterday's "other" album) because WOW, watched a huge spider (no idea what kind it is), catch and wrap a praying mantis who fell in his very large web tonight. I took the photo with my flash (hey, it finally came in handy!). You can see the mantis's head below as the spider goes about subduing the prey and wrapping him with webbing. It was quite the lesson in preparing a meal ala spider. I was not able to get a fly eating a mozzie, Jason, but damned if this wasn't a good substitute. Cheers mate!
@bobfoto , hope this will be a good replacement for flies eating mozzies today. Dang if I didn't get lucky. This was pretty cool to watch. Do you know type of spider? I'm clueless.
@squamloon I know, right? Credit to my husband who said, "YOU GOTTA SEE THIS" Then we saw that it was NOT just a spider. We saw the mantis just going nuts and gradually get put under the spell--just freaky.
@darylo - we have a similar spider called a garden orb, nocturnal they are and will re-make their web each night, and normally bring it down in the morning. Some will eat the silk.
@bobfoto I think it is similar--from what I'm researching right now, it's the barn spider here, but I've seen it called nocturnal orb too. I'm pretty sure I would have noticed this web before since I walk all over chasing bugs these days--makes sense that it's dismantling or eating the silks by morning. Glad I got a chance to see it in action!
The chaotic feeling of this is really something. The mantis is such an odd shape that the spider must have really worked hard to subdue it. One predator subduing another. Fav.
@rvwalker@jodimuli@princessleia@mace508@ness50 I have gine back out and the spider has consumed much of the meal--you can no longer tell there was a praying mantis. Just an insect burrito. Fascinating.
@paulie@taffy@witchyjacq@timandelke@nicoleterheide@grammyn@mothervic@markp@luvmynynix@wind_of_the_sothern_sea@jo13@anazad511@jaynspain@aponi@stimuloog@skipt07@colie Wow, thanks ever so much for the huge response to my scary and somewhat reality crazy spider! I watched a good bit of the evening and made a collage of his goings on for today (it's in my other album for today)--I've learned a lot about this type of spider- spins a web for a night, catches prey, spins prey, consumes prey, then dismantles web for lack of evidence the next day. Totally crazy. Also, the idea that a predator gets the ultimate predator (like a praying mantis) is just sort of odd. A once in a life-time event for me. But I'm glad I had my trusty camera, used a flash for ONCE, and had good focus (a huge issue at nighttime as you all know). And finally, the photo went PP, which I really thank you all for--I've been a horrible follower/friend lately, so I really just want you all to know I appreciate the "look" or the "peek" in when I've been pretty bad about reciprocating. Tomorrow is our labor day. I'm cooking ribs. :)
Awesome shot! Early in my project, I came across a similar spider. It caught something and spun it up. Web completely gone the next morning, but the spider came back around way after dark.
Here's mine: http://365project.org/tskipper/365/2012-09-14
Stunning,
Powerful,
Incredible,
Detailed,
Excellent,
Remarkable.
thanks so much for fav of favs-ing mine too :)
Here's mine: http://365project.org/tskipper/365/2012-09-14