This spider made a wonderful web between two tomato plants in the school garden. We had just arrived at the garden to release a very hungry anole lizard from a student's show-and-tell box. Twenty-five preschoolers were arranged in a semi-circle. Suddenly, a bee flew into the spider's web. Faster than you can remember your ten-digit home phone number with area code first, the spider sensed the disturbance in the web, scurried out from under the tomato leaf, wrestled the bee, and roped it with loop after loop of silk until the bee was completely mummified. After secreting digestive juices onto the bee, the spider resumed its position under the tomato leaf.About fifteen minutes later the spider went back out into the center of the web to retrieve the encased bee. It took its package back under the tomato leaf and began consuming its now liquified catch by holding the case and tipping it to its mouth. Spiders don't have teeth. They use their strong sucking stomach to slurp the pureed bug smoothie out of the box. I'm so sorry I didn't have my camera! I will never ever watch a preschooler drink from a juice box in quite the same way!
Four hours later the spider was still under the tomato leaf, but most of its web was gone. That's when I took the photo.
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