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Project Noah Nature School
Dolomedes triton
A Six-spotted Fishing Spider preying on a dragonfly. The dragonfly had apparently crashed into the water during it's first flight after metamorphosis, and struggled to get to a lily pad for safety. While the dragonfly was fluttering in the water, a medium sized Six-spotted Fishing Spider noticed the movement and came across 2 other lily pads to get to the one which the dragonfly was near. Once the dragonfly made it to the edge of the lily pad, the spider ran about 6 inches and attacked the dragonfly, then dragged it back to where the spider launched it's attack from.
Edge of pond on lily pads
There was a dead dragonfly on a nearby lily pad, possibly a earlier kill made by this spider. Also, this spider was on the same lily pad the following night.
Spotted on Jul 17, 2013
Submitted on Jul 18, 2013
1 Comment
This is a really neat series Tyler! Can't believe I missed it and I can't help but feel sorry for the poor Dragonfly. Very interesting!