This damselfly was already having a bad day when it came to a spider-iffic end. And there's no Prince Charmingfly that'll come along and rescue it.
Steve, who took this photo, discovered that the poor damselfly was already infested with mite larval sacs, which are the pomegranate seed-like knobs at the base of its wing. I wonder what the spider will think of the sacs when he comes across them. Maybe a bit of dessert? Maybe a little bit of mite infestation for him?
Jun 30, 2009
Damsel in Distress
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9 comments:
Awesome shot! I'm curious about what kind of spider it is. Does Steve have a top-view photo, showing the eyes? We might be able to get it at least to family. Where was it taken?
Joe, I actually did get a good top view as well. The focus is on the mites more than the spider but it might show enough of the eye arrangement for somebody who's good at that kind of stuff.
This was taken about 100km east of Ottawa at the edge of a pond.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenbegin/3673715916/sizes/o/
also, apparently I don't know how to do links. Sorry.
I believe the spider is Tibellus oblongus?
http://bugguide.net/node/view/143110
You have to wonder if the mites didn't contribute to the capture of the damselfly by the spider. If so, it's a nice example of how predation can help the prey. In this case, eating a doomed fly reduces the number of mites around to infest other flies.
Oblongus looks right on. Thanks for the ID!
T. oblongus was my first thought, but the fact that it had a damselfly had me thinking twice. Must be a really small damselfly. The spider only gets to 8mm in body length.
Hmm...maybe not then. It was a fairly average size damselfly and I'd guess the spider was probably closer to double that body length.
I have a tendency to remember spiders as being bigger than they actually were though.
love the site. am being lazy not emailing this but Lamprey from the bbc:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8127483.stm
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