SUMMER ADVENTURES - Episode 40 - SPIDER HUNT - for the Butterfly Day and Insect Day Giveaway - Week 46
Batozonellus lacertida is a spider hunting wasp that I've seen many times on the coastal shrubs and meadows ...
... before learning that is a spider hunting species.
I saw this wasp many times during the summer ...
... feeding on the wild carrot flowers ...
... or buzzing around me when I lied on the beach after a bit of snorkeling.
But then one very hot summer day ... on the blackberry shrub ... while I was picking the berries for the seasonal marmalade ...
... I came across this situation.
It all happened very fast, I barely had the time to let the bag with blackberries fall to the ground and take my camera, that at one point also fell deep in the thorny shrubs :) it was a painful and messy action ... and so are the pictures, because it was a low quality, small compact camera and I couldn't obtain a nice, shallow depth of field that would make a nice blurred background ... and the video quality is also ... hm, less than stellar. But the situation was dynamic and interesting, definitely not something I see every day, so I did the best I can to make something out of it with this poor equipment.
As I said, when the action started I was picking blackberries and my hands were very near to this Wasp spider (Argiope bruennichi) ...
... the spider was eating a Bush - cricket caught in his silky orb ...
... and when the wasp attacked the web started to move and vibrate frenetically ...
... at first I thought that another prey was caught in the trap ... something big ... maybe another cricket ...
... then when I saw the colors and shape of that thing, very similar to those of the spider, I thought that another wasp spider somehow appeared ...
... at first I was taking pictures, not knowing what I'm exactly photographing here ... things were happening very fast and frenetic ...
... but I had the clear sensation that is something pretty interesting.
And then when the spider was definitely paralyzed ... hanging helplessly on the thread ... with the wasp buzzing around ...
... a Chabrier's marbled Bush - cricket (Eupholidoptera chabrieri - maybe you remember him from the episode 39) appeared ... and started chewing the remains of the cricket caught in the spider's web ...
... and now ... with the last few shots ...
... of the voracious cricket ...
... is time to end this dramatic little post ... the wasp soon brought the spider deep into the thorny labyrinth of the dense blackberry bush where I couldn't follow with my camera, so this is - THE END.
As always in these posts on Steemit, the videos and the photographs are my work.