Thursday, October 22, 2020

No solo dining for this crab spider

I happened to observe this unusual drama playing out in our white mistflower a few days ago. No doubt the crab spider was wishing she could enjoy her western honeybee far from the maddening crowd. 
 
These are freeloader flies, probably in the genus Desmometopa. According to Bugguide.net, "females are kleptoparasitic and are especially attracted to predatory insects or spiders feeding on honeybees."

2 comments:

sandy lawrence said...

Wow. Amazing! Never witnessed those kleptoparasitic guys before. Thanks for that video clip!

Regina Levoy said...

A new one for me as well, very interesting!

Post a Comment