The Spider and the Fly

I spent some time in the flower bed Thursday afternoon as the weather is supposed to become much cooler next week. As I was digging in the clay/dirt I was being entertained.

a little toad? frog?

When the bee sucks, it makes honey; when the spider, poison.

a spider and web in the evening primrose

When I first noticed the spider, she was moving around a yellow and black little caterpillar. As I worked and kept checking on things, I decided to document what was happening. I'd say within 10 minutes the caterpillar was looking like above...half-encased in white and the spider was not with the caterpillar.

I also noticed a fly trapped in her web. She did not need to poison it. I don't know it it was still alive as the caterpillar had been.

She would check on the progress of the caterpillar and then moved to the fly and began to consume it. She had to eat it as it was not there later when I checked.

 Checking on the caterpillar, again...

She wrapped herself around the what-used-to-be-caterpillar and then...

dropped it back into her web. I did not check later if the spider was still around and if the white encased meal was consumed or if it is tomorrow's lunch.

I was also noticing the bees on the flowers.

Lots of critters to keep me entertained today.