Foo - Thieves everywhere

When I rolled up this afternoon I happened to notice a writing spider wrestling with a freshly caught butterfly. While she was struggling with it a very small spider, who had made an erratic web just in front of the writing spider's orb, swung from his web onto the other, and nicked one of the bugs the writing spider had previously caught and bundled up. He (or she) attached a few lines to it and roped it back into his jumbled web. The thief is tiny in comparison too, at most a tenth of her size. Gutsy way to live.

The thief with his prize
http://homepage.mac.com/awcg/.Pictures/Snake/Spider3.jpg

The victim of the crime and her newest prey
http://homepage.mac.com/awcg/.Pictures/Snake/Spider2.jpg

http://homepage.mac.com/awcg/.Pictures/Snake/Spider1.jpg

Wow, that's pretty cool! Great pictures. :)

Wow! Fantastic that you were able to catch in on film.......err.....digital! Thanks for sharing! :)

One more
http://homepage.mac.com/awcg/.Pictures/Snake/Spider4.jpg

That one is an older Canon 20D with a 28-135 IS lens. It makes a fairly decent "knock around" rig.

i second...or third that!
great pics!

makes me kinda hungry now...

:eek: The spider is purdy, but I sure wouldn't want it crawling on me. Where are "writing spiders" anyway? Cool pics! :)

... Where are "writing spiders" anyway? Cool pics! :)

Between the "reading spiders" and the "arithmetic spiders" :p


sorry. :o

Bada bump, ching!

Between the "reading spiders" and the "arithmetic spiders" :p



Pics? :D I'm fascinated by spiders, seriuosly. Spiders and sharks.

:eek: The spider is purdy, but I sure wouldn't want it crawling on me. Where are "writing spiders" anyway? Cool pics! :)

We're in Georgia.

We're in Georgia.

Oh, you're a fellow southerner. I love spider pics, thanks for sharing! :D

Interesting - never heard it referred to as a writing spider - I had always called it yellow orb weaver --- so I put on my sherlock Tude hat and found that ...

The black-and-yellow argiope is a particularly attractive and large species of orb-weaving spider. It is also known as the yellow garden argiope and the "writing spider"

:) I spent an abbi-normal amount of time as a kid out in the swamps and fields - even had a box of spiders. Praying mantises, snapping turtles, vine snakes ... :rolleyes:

:) I spent an abbi-normal amount of time as a kid out in the swamps and fields - even had a box of spiders. Praying mantises, snapping turtles, vine snakes ... :rolleyes:

You sound like my type of gal. ;) When I was 5 years old, my sister would dare me to pull the legs off of spiders and eat them. She'd charge the neighborhood kids a nickel and then buy us bubblegum with it. I did it mostly with daddy longlegs (poor little spiders - I still feel guilty about it!) but an occasional big brown barn spider would get eaten. I was fearless, but I knew not to go near the black widows that were inevitably putting up webs on our front porch in the summer. :D

Here she is this afternoon, done with yesterday's meal. The little spider has snagged almost all of the smaller bundles off of her web now.

You can see the "lighting bolt" pattern Charlotte has spun into her web.

http://homepage.mac.com/awcg/.Pictures/Snake/Spider5.jpg

http://homepage.mac.com/awcg/.Pictures/Snake/Spider6.jpg

Here she is this afternoon, done with yesterday's meal. The little spider has snagged almost all of the smaller bundles off of her web now.

Those looks like "Z"s to me. A most cultured and erudite spider you have there! :D

Is the lantana considered a weed there?

Isn't it originally from India or somewhere like that? It is a noxious weed in South Africa (and they sell them as house plants up here :) - the same with the rubber plant trees Ficus elastica) The area opposite our house was vacant and filled with lantana growing above the 8 foot fence. Mainly pink flowers, though you did get the orange ones in different areas.

Nope, we pay good money for our lantana. This bush is has grown huge in the last year, from a sprig to quite a bit larger than my car. The butterflies love it, there are usually a couple on it at any give time.