Burden

The path in my greenhouse is covered with coarse chainsaw dust. Today I found a red wasp dragging a large spider. It was heavy going because the wasp couldn’t get traction with the loose wood fragments. As it tugged at the spider its back legs were working hard and chips were flying. Note the blurring of the legs and chips. Now and then it stepped aside to rub its head with its front legs. Eventually it got its feet on the edging board and rapidly dragged the spider up the 10cm board and over into a mess of gardening tools.

This wasp was smaller than the one I blipped a couple of weeks ago, but it is obviously the same species. Its strength is amazing. The spider looks like a grey house spider. It has been paralysed and will remain alive for the wasp’s offspring to feed on.

EDIT: I put the movie on YouTube.

We have had a lovely warm and mostly sunny day. The air was so clear that the mountains stood out with great detail. Unfortunately I was busy and forgot to take photos of them.