Thursday, June 13, 2013

lunch in the lilacs

We have a small lilac bush at the front of the house and yesterday, as I came in from checking the mail, I gave it a quick once-over. I spotted the iridescent wing of a something-something. Squinted at it. Oh my: a syrphid fly had been invited to lunch by a crab spider. Fetchez le camera!

“Welcome!”

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“You look marvelous! Have you lost weight?”

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“I love your new look!”

There was a light breeze, which set the lilac blooms dancing. It was hard to get a good shot. I stabilized the branch for my own reasons, but the spider took advantage of the sudden (relative) stillness to manoeuver her guest into a better position:

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Diner est servi!

The nice folks over at bugguide.net believe the guest to be a female Toxomerus geminatus. Although by now she’s been transmogrified into her host(ess), the spider. And so it goes.

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