Divided Loyalties

I have to confess that I quite like spiders. I am quite happy to let them spin their webs and catch whatever prey may come their way. Sometimes I may even help by knocking the odd intruding wasp their way with a well aimed flick of the ruler.
This morning I noticed a honey bee had got in and was buzzing around trying to find the exit. I opened a window to try to encourage it in the right direction but unfortunately it strayed too close to the spiders webs. I was just about to intervene when a large spider leapt out of its lair and grabbed the bee and pulled it further into the web. There was a struggle but the spider won. I just had time to take this picture with my phone camera before the bee was dragged into the hole.
I like bees, I keep bees and try to keep as many alive as possible but I have to confess I was fascinated by the way the spider grabbed the bee so quickly. Nature red in mandible and claw!