Wasp Spiders and Hornet Robberflies.

 

With late Summer two creatures become more numerous on my patch. Numbers of both Wasp Spider and Hornet Robberfly have grown considerably over the past few years. On a good year for either of these species it can be quite easy to see twenty plus of either of them. This year however, has not been such a good year for the Wasp Spider, but numbers of the Hornet Robberfly has been very high, with lots of them being seen hunting their favourite prey of Grasshoppers. As a coinicidence, grasshoppers are also the favourite prey for the Wasp Spider. The strange pattern in the web is thought to strengthen the web to stop the grasshoppers from jumping out of the web, and keeping the web strong enough to keep it intact.

Both these species though will take other prey, although I can't remember seeing a Wasp Spider with a wasp until this one below.

Wasp Spider with a Wasp.

Wasp Spider showing patterning in the web.

It's always difficult to get an impression of size with photographs, which is a shame as this one shown below was the largest Wasp Spider that I have ever seen. I watched it over several days before it vanished, but not before I had managed to show it to Lisa on one of our walks.

Female Wasp Spider.

My highest count this year of the Hornet Robberfly was well over 30 along the valley. Many were seen mating too. The first sighting each year is always a good day, although probably not so much for the prey species. I have seen them catch beetles, flies and butterflies, as well as lots of grasshoppers. The insects can often be seen on cow pats, this can be for two reasons, as they will catch flies that visit the cow pats. Females also lay their eggs in the cow pats where the young larvae eat fly and beetle larvae also living there.

Hornet Robberfly.

Hornet Robberfly with grasshopper prey.

I was with James one day along the valley, when we saw a mating pair of Hornet Robberflies take off in front of us. The insects usually land on foliage with a messy background, so we couldn't believe our luck when this pair flew low down into a bramble bush and sat mating in full view on top of a bramble leaf. They even stayed there for a long time so we could both get as many photos as we could hope for. We even left them in this position after watching them for some time.

Mating Hornet Robberflies.

                                                        

Just last week along the valley I came across a different species of spider. This one was a Crab Spider on Devil's-bit Scabious. She had caught a Common Drone-fly, which was an enormous meal for her. She was however sharing the meal with a Red Ant, although I doubt that she was aware of this. It was quite an interesting image though, as the ant seemed to be favouring the wings of the drone-fly.

Crab Spider with Drone-fly prey, and Ant.