Will You Walk Into My Parlor...

...said the spider to the (butter)fly.

We found this Golden Silk Orbweaver (Nephila clavipes) female relaxing on a cloudy morning with the remains of her breakfast: a well packaged Gulf Fritillary butterfly (Agraulis vanillae). The webs of these spiders can be up to a meter in size and are often characterized by obvious zig-zag weavings of silk and silk that appears yellow in the sunlight. Females of this species are striking and very large in size compared to their male counterparts.

The life of a butterfly seems to be pretty much at the center of the proverbial food web. This clever spider has spun her glorious web in the center of a large stand of White Fountain Grass (Pennisetum villosum). At night and in cloudy weather butterflies tend to roost in protective locations like inside large shrubs or stands of tall grasses where they have less chance of being spotted by predators. Unfortunately, sometimes the predators can come right to the safe havens. This particular stand of grass still had about 30 or so non-packaged butterflies that were just waiting for the sun to peek out so they could go about the butterfly business of feeding and mating and laying eggs.

The Spider and the Fly
The title of this post comes from the poem "The Spider and the Fly" by Mary Howitt. The first verse reads:

"Will you walk into my parlor?” said the spider to the fly;
“’Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you did spy.
The way into my parlor is up a winding stair,
And I have many pretty things to show when you are there.”
“O no, no,” said the little fly, “to ask me is in vain,
For who goes up your winding stair can ne’er come down again.”

Read the rest here.