Today's Lunch....
A big fat juicy beetle who just happened to get snagged in it's web to be followed by dessert of a little spider which has been enclosed in a silk 'coffin'. I think this is some kind of orbweaver. I watched it bite it's prey, wrap it in silk, waited for it to die, vomited over it and then it begin to eat. The process is the spider will literally vomit digestive fluid over the prey. The prey is then chewed with the "jaws" (chelicerae), and the fluid is sucked back into the mouth together with some liquefied "meat" from the prey. The spider repeats this process as often as necessary to digest, and ingest, all but the inedible hard parts. What is discarded afterwards is a small ball of residue......No wonder Miss Muffet was frightened away!!
Today's Lunch....
A big fat juicy beetle who just happened to get snagged in it's web to be followed by dessert of a little spider which has been enclosed in a silk 'coffin'. I think this is some kind of orbweaver. I watched it bite it's prey, wrap it in silk, waited for it to die, vomited over it and then it begin to eat. The process is the spider will literally vomit digestive fluid over the prey. The prey is then chewed with the "jaws" (chelicerae), and the fluid is sucked back into the mouth together with some liquefied "meat" from the prey. The spider repeats this process as often as necessary to digest, and ingest, all but the inedible hard parts. What is discarded afterwards is a small ball of residue......No wonder Miss Muffet was frightened away!!