In the domain of the insects predators come in all kinds of interesting shapes and sizes, in both animal and plant forms.
Dragonflies are one of my favorite predators. Their agility and near 360 degree vision allow them to capture anything close to their size. Their eyes in particular are fascinating when viewed up close. Dragonflies like to perch atop things that allow them to see all around. You cannot sneak up on them. But they are remarkably patient and it is not difficult to get close enough to capture some really close up photographs.
Humped Bladderwort is an example of a predacious plant. It is aquatic and most of the plant floats just below the surface, only the flowers poking up out of the water for reproductive purposes. They feed on water flies, mosquito larvae, protozoa and rotifers. Beneath the surface of the water the plant has many small sacs called bladders. When an small aquatic organism gets close to a bladder it quickly inflates, drawing in both water and the organism which is digested by the plant for nutrients. The details on how this works are fascinating and well worth looking up.
Jagged Assassin Bugs are one of those creatures that I simply never noticed over years of hiking and photographing in the Indiana Dunes. Then one day I saw and photographed one. As soon as I got a good look at the photograph I was mesmerized by its almost alien appearance, so of course I had to identify and learn as much as I could about it. Much like a Crab Spider, these are ambush predators. They sit motionless on wild flowers waiting for another insect to come within reach, then they quickly reach out with their powerful praying mantis like forelimbs and grasp their prey. They then inject a complex venom which near instantly paralyzes their prey and begins liquifying its innards which the Assassin Bug consumes.
Sometimes however, Assassin Bugs will stalk their prey like a lion. The following three photographs were taken over a period of about 5 minutes.
What I noticed when I came across this flower was the Assassin Bug on the right, and the Hoverfly on the far left side. I thought for sure that the Hoverfly would eventually come within range of the Assassin Bug which would then attempt to snatch it out of the air, and I was hoping to capture that moment with my camera. What I did NOT notice however was the small Crab Spider above and a little to the left of the Assassin Bug.
As the Hoverfly moved from one part of the flower to another, I was intent on keeping the Assassin Bug in focus as the flower swayed in the light breeze. As the Assassin Bug slowly moved across the flower I assumed it was trying to position itself to catch the Hoverfly which seemed to be avoiding it.
After about 5 minutes I decided to move on. It was not until after I got home and looked more closely at the photographs that I saw the out of focus Crab Spider. As I flipped through the sequence of photos it was clear that the Assassin Bug had spotted the spider and was stalking it. I must have given up and left less than a minute before either the spider retreated, or one of the predators made a meal out of the other. It is not at all clear which one would have survived the encounter. I was beside myself that I had not noticed the Crab Spider and stuck around just a little bit longer. Just goes to show that you cannot have too much patience when observing nature, wait long enough and something interesting will happen.
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