Thursday, October 24, 2013

[jules' pics] Battle of the predators

It was starting to cool a little in early September and I braved a run to work. To wile away the time I decided to count hornets and, in about 45 minutes, got to 29. In the weeks that followed the numbers dwindled. It was the year of the plague of hornets, but now it is almost all over. New predators have arisen!

Hornets like to use the human-made paths in the thick forest vegetation. They are kind of like hornet motorways. A couple of weeks ago, suspended over such a path at Jufukuji temple were a series of webs of which this was one.
Jufukuji - spider eats hornet
Yes - it is a spider sucking out the insides of a neatly wrapped hornet. Now we know why the thread in their webs is so ridiculously tough - it's to make the most of the once-in-a-decade hornet bonanza!

Elsewhere smaller spiders were just posing attractively over gravestones, eager to attract boyfriends for supper.
Jufukuji - spider


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Posted By Blogger to jules' pics at 10/24/2013 03:48:00 PM

1 comment:

andrewt said...

I've seen a swallow caught in a Nephila web but they can snare even bigger birds: http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-205_162-10018691-6.html