Rather a gruesome seriese

tpe · Jul 27, 2013

I was very excited to find some kind of parasitic wasp that had captured and paralyzed one of the local spiders (probably Lycosa tarantula) in Montenegro.

1. The wasp was trying to drag the spider up a step to the garden lawn.

2. Unfortunatly it would drop it when it couldnt lift it any more

3. And have to start all over again

4. And again.

5. But it finally got it to the lawn at the top. Where it had to drag it a further 2 m through grass and plants

6. When it eventually got to the hole it had prepared where it would lay its eggs on the paralyzed spider for the kids to feed on.

This was the first time i have had the opportunity to get a shot of this, all the other times i have seen anything similar they have been to quick or the wasp would fly away with the spider and i couldnt keep up. This time the spider was so big that it was easy to follow. Oddly i saw the same thing happen twice after with two more similar spiders on the same day so i guess it was the right time in the right place, but i was very pleased.

Thanks for looking

Tim

tirediron · Jul 27, 2013

Wow... well captured series! Nature is truly nasty at times.

Derrel · Jul 27, 2013

Yes, pretty nice series. Interesting. I had no idea. Thanks for making and posting this.

Benco · Jul 27, 2013

The biter bit!

Nice set.

DarkShadow · Jul 27, 2013

Wow nice capture. I thought it would be the other way around but apparently I thought wrong.

JohnnyBlack · Jul 27, 2013

Wow man, you are brave getting so close, if I saw a spider that big I would run screaming like a little girl. I can still appreciate that they are great shots, well done.

Low_Sky · Jul 27, 2013

That's pretty awesome.

tpe · Jul 28, 2013

Thank you for the very nice comments, very supprizing, I kind of think it is a nasty seriese so didnt expect it to do much other than lead to cringing, wasps and spiders

.

Tim