Treebeard`s Photos

Two little Flies on a Garden Spider's Prey

This is interesting. The photo shows a Banded Argiope (Argiope trifasciata) garden spider in the school garden wrapping a "package" - probably an unfortunate Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) that got tangled in its web. But sitting on the package are two different kinds of Fly in the order Diptera, one just above the spider's leg and one just below.

I guess this preditor has preditors, and that the flies are trying to lay eggs that will consume the spider's prey before the spider's own young can. But maybe the prey is wrapped so tight that the flies can't get in? Will the different fly larvae attack each other? (Santa Ynez Valley, 20 November 2008)

I've had three *l*o*n*g* days of teacher-parent-student conferences at school, but I had a few short breaks to take photos in Julie's school garden. Conferences went OK, though I could barely mouth my words by the end of the day. This is NOT recommended for recovering stroke victims!

Yahoo, it's the start of a week of Thanksgiving vacation!

Guestbook Comments (6)

pitquim said on 11/22/08 2:52 AM

very interesting...

thanks for sharing your pictures, my friend

nor4__mdo said on 11/22/08 2:11 PM

Wow! nice fotolog!
beatifull pictures :-)