A Jumping Spider Goes Hunting

A jumping spider with a fly (larger then the spider) hanging in midair

I was out with my camera one day and I spotted this little jumping spider with an impressively large catch (a green bottle fly, I think). Jumping spiders are active little hunters; they do not build webs and wait for prey to get trapped, they search out and pounce on their prey. In this case, by the time I spotted them both the fly and the spider were suspended in midair by a strand of the spider’s silk (which they use as a safety line when they leap off of things) and spinning wildly. I’m not sure if the spider managed to pounce on the fly in midair or if the fly took off right after being pounced on.

This was the first picture in the series, when the spider and fly were still spinning. I was using a relatively fast shutter speed, but you can still see the motion blur from the spinning. I think it makes for an interesting action shot, though.
After subduing the fly, the spider reeled it up the silk thread.

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