On the same afternoon when I photographed Steven doing doughnuts on the tractor while cutting the grass, I stopped to take a look at the wild flowers growing at the edge of the lawn. The black and white project is to feature 'living things' for tomorrow and I was looking for subjects. As I stood there, a bee flew in to feast on the nectar and I quickly focused to catch a photograph of it. Just then, taking both the bee and me by surprise a crab spider dropped from its hiding place and pounced on the poor thing. It seemed to bury something into the bee that surely paralysed or stunned it and then it twist it in its legs, presumably while it proceeded to suck it dry, which it apparently does. There was nothing I could do but continue to watch and photograph as by the time I knew what was happening the bee was finished. Later, when I got to see the pictures I had taken, the first one, a little out of focus from my haste, showed the bee about to land and, almost completely hidden, but just about to descend to attack, the spider. I had not been aware of it but the camera had caught it.
So here is my rather dark themed image for #beethursday +Bee Thursday by +Dorothy Pugh
My G+ posts are all on my blog : https://www.elliekennard.ca .
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Wow how amazing is that kind of sad for that poor spider though.
Lol thanks
+Ellie O'Hara thanks Ellie. (nice name BTW)
So cute
+James Listig oh dear!
The chances of a bee 🐝 stinging you from where we live is probably… Never going to happen. ☺
You can be desensitised to their venom, I know because my husband Steven was a beekeeper in France and he was allergic. In order to keep on with the bees, he went first to the hospital where the desensitisation process was started, then eventually his doctor continued with the treatment of injections. He doesn't do it any more so doesn't need the treatment.
I'm really sorry for the bee but in a way I'm glad the spider captured it because I'm allergic to their stingers
You're most welcome Ellie. 🙂
+Kim Sinclair thanks for visiting this post and I don't mind it being a little delayed. Thanks also for the reshare, Kim and +Buggy Lunch
I've just seen this after looking at your latest post, Ellie. Did I doze off and miss this post earlier. My apologies if so. It's a fabulous shot. That little crab spider has really got itself a great +Buggy Lunch ! 🙂
Haha well thank you for everything in your lovely posts
+soo in lee – no need to apologize, you didn't wake me. My devices are off when I am asleep (or muted at least). 😀
thank you Ellie oh sorry I didnt mean to wake you up if I did
+Ellie Kennard we have all sorts of sizes of grasshopper! It's funny!
+Kirill Kichatov thank you very much.
+soo in lee thank you so much for so many wonderful (and thoughtful) comments on so many of my posts. I will answer them all as I can, but it is late here and I have dishes to do before bed LOL! 😀 So I will thank you first here. I am just an animal lover, like yourself. And I love to 'capture' them with my camera.
Welcome to G+! You are doing just great in making such lovely comments.
+Kids Thompson – wow! they must be big spiders. 😀
+Mohan Pai thank you so much for the lovely comment.
hi I love your posts ellie I am a total animal lover and I love your pictures this picture is actually nice and fantastically beautiful
We have allot of spiders at our house. I like to feed them grasshoppers
Ellie, Very Very Nice … All Your These Photos Are Nice to see.. How You Are Getting… Keep It Up.. Mohan Pai, Bangalore
Nice photo!
سبحان مم جعل لكل قدر وهو على كل شيء قدير
Thanks a lot +Maurice Robinson
This picture told ever word u posted. Excellent work.
thank you +donnie martin
u take nice pictures.
mmm. Not sure about the pretty bit, but thank you +Marina De la Rivera 🙂
Oooo, so pretty
My pleasure, +Ellie Kennard! I'm doing my best!
+Wayne Upchurch thanks, you are so right, just serendipitous, but if I hadn't had my camera with me, aimed and ready…. it would have been one of those moments you describe. We've all had many of those ones, for sure.
+Bee Thursday thank you so much (and +Dorothy Pugh) I am so glad that your great theme is still alive and actively moderated. The support of the moderators is so much appreciated.
Just awesome!!!!
For most of us who are wishing to capture such a moment, there are so many times we come up empty. It's true, though, that you have to be watching or in the act of actively photographing/seeing, or it's just another "if only", or "I wish" day. Congratulations on being in play, and catching a sequence such as this.
Astonishing capture, +Ellie Kennard! Will reshare on the +Bee Thursday page.
god showers blessings
i
x
+Karen Cooper thank you, Karen.
This is just amazing – what a shot. Great job!
:o(
+Ursula Klepper thanks Ursula. They apparently have a poisonous bite that kills the prey and then they suck it dry. 🙁
+Christina Lihani thanks Christina. I wish my timing had not been so perfect, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get the photos.
+Kimberly Smith thanks so much for telling me what this is, Kim. It seemed to inject the bee in some way. I will check out the crab spider info to see what it does. It certainly had both the bee and me fooled.
Oh this is a killer spider! I didn't know that they eat bees!! Great capture Ellie!
Amazing shot
What an amazing capture here +Ellie Kennard! Your timing was so perfect!
Crab spiders are amazing animals. I was once photographing a blue iris and discovered one hiding inside near the stamen with it's body poised in a posture that made it almost completely invisible.
+Ellie Kennard No
+Scott Vandal yikes!
And we are just in the process of arranging for a local beekeeper to put some of his hives on our property. Perhaps I should pull this photo off the internet. :-/
+Beverly Everson thanks, Beverly. 🙂
It's not Monsanto, it's the Spiders.
Wow!!!
Thanks Pat! +Pat Robinson
Hi Ellis,VERY nice picture.
Thanks a lot, +Heiko Mahr – I took several, a few were sharp, but it was hard to see what was happening. This combined the clearest views with the sharpness I was after. 😀
wow what a great document of nature
That is so great and so crisp sharp +Ellie Kennard
+Jasbir S. Randhawa thank you very much, Jasbir.
Absolutely, and thank you Bill! I just kept taking pictures, knowing it was a once in a lifetime thing, on that scale at least.+William McLean
Thanks very much, +Dylan Johnson – I agree that it's not often such a shot presents itself, to me, at least.
+Sumit Sen thank you so much for that, Sumit. 😀
+Isabelle Cardinal Yes, absolutely. This is a case where stealth and speed won the fight – which was almost not a fight at all. Plus, I suspect, the poison it injected. If the bee had stung it, it would have died itself anyway, so no use in fighting, it was a goner whatever.
+Sunny Wu thank you Sunny. (Yes, it's a close-up which was why I didn't classify it originally as a macro. The term has been overused and should not apply to this photo. I removed it from the post.)
+Diana Boyd thanks a lot Diana.
+Sandra Nesbit Yes, poor bee! It was more shocked than I was, for sure.
+Terry Gardner thanks, and it probably helps that whatever it injected into it had immobilized it.
+Leonardo Hervacio Arenas thanks so much!
Thanks a lot +Liz C – I hope it doesn't shock the sensitive (which I count myself among).
+Gert Klimanschewski 😉
+Byron Sheldrick it was, though not what I had intended to photograph. thanks Byron.
+Valerie Liney thank you Valerie. 🙂
+Jeffrey J Davis I know, I couldn't believe as I watched it. I felt like a photographer in a war zone, almost.
+Jenny Loren thank you Jenny!
+HQSP Animals Actually I have removed the # for macro as it was not a macro shot, just a close up shot. I am surprised it is not considered 'animals' as you don't have an insect theme, but understand if that is the policy (it doesn't say so on the copy paste page info about the theme). Thank you anyway.
+Ellie Kennard Awesome capture, Ellie! 🙂
Remarkable capture Ellie. shows how worthwhile to shoot continuously in such a situation.
Thanks for sharing
Dark it may be, but an amazing find and excellently captured!
Wonderful nature capture!
Very interesting and special capture there!! Whahh… when they say size does not matter, it is very impressive to see that smaller spider attacking a bigger insect and… winning the fight!! hehe… very cool!
Nice close up
awesome capture
Amazing photo and story. The bee even has a look of surprise (or horror/) on it's poor little face. Wonderful watching, Ellie!
Cool image. They do speed wrap their prey.
A wonderful shot!
Wowee!
…great snap 😉
Very cool thing to witness
Awesome.
Very awesome shot, you were lucky to catch the food chain in action.
Great capture
+HQSP Animals thank you for that note. I had not thought it fit the +HQSP Macro but I have amended the post and added the tag.
+Shelly Gunderson thanks Shelley. Creepy, yes, but you are right, interesting to watch it.
Thank you +Ellie Kennard for your great contribution to HQSPAnimals. Unfortunately this post does not fit in this theme. Please add this hashtag to your post #hqspmacro
OH wow! Kind of creepy but very cool too. Neat that you were capturing this!
+Stephen Thackeray I guess so. And they do have to live too.
Just got to love these gutsy little spiders 🙂