Friday, May 18, 2012

Friday Photos


Sometimes, in this big, big world we forget that epic things happen every day…on a slightly smaller scale. Animal Planet, Discovery, History and Disney all like to produce shows detailing the lives of great creatures: dinosaurs, lions, whales, chimpanzees.

But who, I ask you, tells the stories of the small creatures? 

Well...today, I guess that would be me.

Witness, for instance, the Epic Battle I almost stepped on while puttering in my garden the other day. 

This is the Epic Battle of a spider wasp named Bronte (because spider wasps have trendy names) and a lone wolf spider, named Murray McGilroy, a good, hard working spider out for his morning coffee break.
 See how Bronte attacks with relentless force, driving the looming Murray back again and again. Fear rolled off Murray like a thick fog in London.
Murray rears back hissing and cursing (I assume that's what it is doing since that's what I'd be doing if a wasp was trying to lay its eggs on my abdomen).
 
 Again and again Murray tries to flee fearing the biting pierce of Bronte's...egg laying sting?
Bronte finally flies off, the action so quick I was unable to determine who was actually triumphant. Did Murray manage to scare the persistent Bronte off? Or did Bronte sneak in with a quick snap of her ova...duct...depositor? and lay an egg on Murray's back as he tried to flee?

We may never know. Murray was gone when I came back to check on him.

5 comments:

  1. This, for me, was simultaneously great, and terrifying. It did help me realize I may have arachnophobia.

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    1. I'm glad I could help! I like being helpful. I think spiders like being helpful too. See how helpful Murray looks sitting there...waiting to eat your face off!

      :)

      Really though it was funny because as I was trying to snap the photos he kept jumping at me. And I was pretty close to him, as you can see!

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  2. I have so many spiders in my house I've almost gotten used to them. Except the two black widows. There was no getting used to them. And that last picture is actually super cute. I know those are probably fake coloring to look like eyes, but it looks like he has a little cutey face.

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    1. I love that photo! Wold spiders are my favorite because they do look so freaking cute! We get these humongous banana spiders all in the palms and trees around the yard. Their webs are gigantic literally stretching across trees! My mom (who really, really doesn't like spiders) has actually threatened to not visit during the summer because there are so many!

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    2. And as for the black widow...we have them here and in my nearly thirteen years in Florida, I have seen exactly one. I am way more concerned with the brown recluse. Those guys are vengeful and hunt you down, I'm sure of it!

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