Off camera, the loser flies away & sits under my truck. On camera, the winner carries the spider a few feet along the foundation. After grooming herself extensively, she checks out her burrow, retrieves the spider, and disappears into her nest site. Meanwhile, a fourth character, never quite clear, follows behind & even enters the burrow. My superhero Dr. Bugman (aka Ph.D. entomologist Dick Beeman) suggests that the shadowy figure could be the mate of the doomed spider--following her pheromone trail. The smaller wasp at the end could be the mate of our leading lady. Indeed, the males of this species are smaller than the females.
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Ferruginous Spider Wasps Battle Over Spider, Burrow
Off camera, the loser flies away & sits under my truck. On camera, the winner carries the spider a few feet along the foundation. After grooming herself extensively, she checks out her burrow, retrieves the spider, and disappears into her nest site. Meanwhile, a fourth character, never quite clear, follows behind & even enters the burrow. My superhero Dr. Bugman (aka Ph.D. entomologist Dick Beeman) suggests that the shadowy figure could be the mate of the doomed spider--following her pheromone trail. The smaller wasp at the end could be the mate of our leading lady. Indeed, the males of this species are smaller than the females.
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