Spider vs Wasp

Today, while out in the garden, the wife pointed out a rather tense situation that was developing on next door's rose bush. I thought I'd share the story with you all, sorry no pics though.

A wasp was caught in a spiders web. A fairly sizeable, but not massive spider had obviously sensed the vibration of the web, caused by the wasp trying to struggle free, and was coming to collect his dinner. He did his usual spider move and boxed in his prey with his legs, by which time I was watching very closely. The wasp wasn't going to go down without a fight though, but nor was the spider willing to forego his tea, so a struggle happened. As the wasp wriggled, the spider tried several times to get the fangs in, but with no luck. Then the spider made a mistake. He knocked his own tea lose slightly, just enough that his tea was able to pivot round and faster than a cat's swipe of its claws, out thrust the abdomen to deploy the sting. The spider was stunned, but I don't think the sting penetrated, but seizing the opportunity the wasp made a last big effort to brake free, and escape. The poor spider just stood there for about a minute, then almost looking disappointed, wander off back to his hiding place. Nature can be quite dramatic at times.

 

With that description clueless I`m oh so glad our insect friends are the small size they are. Just Imagine the scene if they were more our size!