Photo 12637215, (c) Wynand Uys, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Wynand Uys

Attribution © Wynand Uys
some rights reserved
Uploaded by wynand_uys wynand_uys
Source iNaturalist
Associated observations

Photos / Sounds

What

African Social Spider (Stegodyphus dumicola)

Observer

wynand_uys

Date

December 31, 2017 05:46 AM SAST

Description

A scrappy expanse of silky refuges and capture webs littered with body parts of previous victims. When preferred prey is entangled, the female spiders emerge from their 'nests' and overpower it by grabbing its extremities. In this case, a wasp https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319446.
Presumably they inject venom because after a minute or so the prey stops struggling. Then they snip it out of the web and carry it into one of several 'nests' or refuges.
Unwanted prey, often beetles (see https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319435 ) are also killed but sometimes left in the web, uneaten. Ants, in this case, Maranoplus ( https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319390 )scavenge around the periphery of the webs, feasting on unwanted beetles or other left-overs.

Associated taxa
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