An Epic Battle

[LoveT]

Hi

This afternoon I was in my garden with my camera, looking for suitable macro subjects when I came across this scene, which I thought I'd share with you all:



The spider was tiny - body length no more than 2-3 millimetres, and the fly (as you can see) was just a bit bigger . I watched (and photographed ) for a while; the fly was trying hard to escape, but the spider was having none of it. It's a real tribute to the tenacity of these little critters when it comes to getting a meal.

By the way - the spider won!

Thanks for looking.

Thea

[Geoff F]

That looks like a crab spider, probably Misumena vatia. It is amazing what they manage to catch.

[frits_b]

I tend to think it's a Dictynidae species, Geoff, probably Dictyna. You can see the spider's web, and crab spiders don't make webs. Dictynids spin their webs across firm leaves and are well-known for catching prey way bigger than themselves.

[frits_b]

A slight correction to my previous post: the spider looks very much like Nigma puella (also Dictynidae ;-)

[Geoff F]

I was just going to suggest that, Frits, but you beat me by 2 minutes while I was double checking my book!

A rather localised south coast species. But Thea is in the correct area.

I hadn't noticed the web until you mentioned it.