KneesUp
Guru
Near the little pond the kid and I dug in spring, there is a rather obvious, large web, with a red and white spider in the middle. Thanks to the wonder of the web (see what I did there) I know it is Araneus diadematus - aka the European Garden Spider or Cross Spider.
I've been keeping an eye on it but so far I've not seen it actually catch anything, and nor is there any evidence of saved food. The other day I found a dead bee in the garden - presumably caught out by the heavy rain - so I threw it at the web to see what would happen. What happened was:
1) the bee stuck to the web
2) the spider went and hid under a leaf - still on the web
3) eventually the spider ventured out and inspected the dead bee
4) the spider had a bit of a feel of the bee and then released it from the web
This made me wonder:
1) did the spider reject the bee because it knew it was a bee and it doesn't like bees?
2) did it reject the bee because it didn't struggle (on account of being dead) and therefore it didn't recognise it as prey?
3) if it was rejected because it didn't struggle, have any insects evolved 'play dead' as a strategy to be freed from spider webs?
Now - this morning I was in the garden having a coffee and a living bee flew into the web. It didn't struggle much, it stayed still for a while - but it's sting was primed - and the spider this time stayed in the middle of the web. I was hoping this might answer some of yesterdays questions, and/or provide a bit of a spectacle as the two of them had a scrap, but to my surprise the bee freed itself quite easily and flew off.
We seem to have a lot of different expertise on the forum - so any answers?
Ta
I've been keeping an eye on it but so far I've not seen it actually catch anything, and nor is there any evidence of saved food. The other day I found a dead bee in the garden - presumably caught out by the heavy rain - so I threw it at the web to see what would happen. What happened was:
1) the bee stuck to the web
2) the spider went and hid under a leaf - still on the web
3) eventually the spider ventured out and inspected the dead bee
4) the spider had a bit of a feel of the bee and then released it from the web
This made me wonder:
1) did the spider reject the bee because it knew it was a bee and it doesn't like bees?
2) did it reject the bee because it didn't struggle (on account of being dead) and therefore it didn't recognise it as prey?
3) if it was rejected because it didn't struggle, have any insects evolved 'play dead' as a strategy to be freed from spider webs?
Now - this morning I was in the garden having a coffee and a living bee flew into the web. It didn't struggle much, it stayed still for a while - but it's sting was primed - and the spider this time stayed in the middle of the web. I was hoping this might answer some of yesterdays questions, and/or provide a bit of a spectacle as the two of them had a scrap, but to my surprise the bee freed itself quite easily and flew off.
We seem to have a lot of different expertise on the forum - so any answers?
Ta
