Okay, I did not identify these spiders (and I doubt I could –Well maybe an Araneus diadematus at top of the first picture below), but let”s this be part of BBB09. I was walking down the trail when I saw a Crane fly (there were plenty of them this morning) that was dancing in a very strange way.
Indeed. It wasn”t dancing. It was trying to escape from a spider web. Do you notice anything special?
Trying to escape from the spider web
The Crane fly is doing well to flee from the web. Actually, it did remove itself from being completely caught up within.
Does it help? Not sure. And here”s why:
Riding a Crane Fly wild
Before escaping, a spider had jumped onto its back, and is poisoning the insect to death.
Spider catch...
The Crane fly didn’t make it. I was just left wondering if I wasn’t witnessing directly something called kleptoparasitism: the catching spider wasn’t really owning the web, but jumped as the occasion went by instead. Indeed, it doesn’t look like the two spider belong to the same species (even if most spider species have strong sexual dimorphism). What do you think?
Last dancing round
How do you SEE such things? If your eyesight is normal, you must be somehow prepared to notice, and then to observe more closely. Your students are very lucky to have your instruction.
I know, I have a very cool super-power! :)
Seriously, chance plays the greater role. Maybe I was just trying to find something interesting within an ocean of “classics” (not uninteresting per se but less susceptible to content other naturalist minds…).
I guess I can be sort of rather focused sometimes. I once almost died because I didn’t see a car next to me and was willing to have a closer look at a Clytus arietis on a bramble flower ten meters ahead…
[...] conventional bioblitzing in a hedged farmland area in French Brittany (noting a possible case of spider kleptoparasitism along the way) and near the Couesnon river, next to Mézière sur Couesnon. Seeing and reading [...]