richard.heeks
Cocooned Wasp
This is a wasp tied up in a spider's web. I think that the wasp was still alive here, but I'm not sure. Its mouth parts seemed to move now and then as if it was trying to chew its way out.
The spider was a house spider - quite a lot bigger than the wasp. I had no idea that house spiders fed on wasps, but they obviously do.
I didn't see these wasps (there were two in the web) land in the web. I had been watching the spider for a while and then went away for 20 minutes or so. When I came back there were the wasps all cocooned like this. I wonder if the spider had stored them somewhere and then brought them back to the web where it could handle them and feed on them.
It makes a change for me to feel sadness and sympathy for wasps. A few years ago I watched wasps attacking and then decapitating bees. I felt sorry for the bees then, and no sympathy for wasps. But wasps meet harsh ends too. All part of nature's cycle.
Cocooned Wasp
This is a wasp tied up in a spider's web. I think that the wasp was still alive here, but I'm not sure. Its mouth parts seemed to move now and then as if it was trying to chew its way out.
The spider was a house spider - quite a lot bigger than the wasp. I had no idea that house spiders fed on wasps, but they obviously do.
I didn't see these wasps (there were two in the web) land in the web. I had been watching the spider for a while and then went away for 20 minutes or so. When I came back there were the wasps all cocooned like this. I wonder if the spider had stored them somewhere and then brought them back to the web where it could handle them and feed on them.
It makes a change for me to feel sadness and sympathy for wasps. A few years ago I watched wasps attacking and then decapitating bees. I felt sorry for the bees then, and no sympathy for wasps. But wasps meet harsh ends too. All part of nature's cycle.