If you want to watch a spider eat a fish—and you know you do—you need to think like a spider.
First, go where the water is still: A windless lake, or a bend in a lazy stream. This is where fish wait for insects to fly close to the surface. It’s a place where the fish feels comfortable. The spider is comfortable, too: Its hind legs anchored on a stone or branch while the front legs rest on the water’s surface. But the spider is ready (and hopefully so are you, with your camera), and the moment the fish’s dorsal fin breaks the surface and makes a ripple, the spider will pounce.
This drama plays out every day, on every continent except Antarctica, according to a paper published today in PLoS ONE by zoologist Martin Nyffeler the University of Basel in Switzerland, who has made his career studying spider behavior.
via Wired
Image: ED GERMAIN
