Bats and spiders…it makes me think of Halloween, anyway. I’ll stick a photo below the fold of a spider eating a bat so you can get into the festive spirit, too.

It seems there is a bit of a conflict going on in northern Australia, with bats snatching up spiders and spiders snaring bats.

Ms Maclean said there had been several other recorded incidents of bats caught in spider webs but, conversely, some microbats in the Far North were known to eat golden orb spiders out of their webs.

“[Golden-tipped bats] have two large teeth that are specially housed in the bottom jaw,” she said.

“They can tell which side of the web the spider’s in, they fly in, they grab the body of the spider with the teeth, and then they fly backwards out of the web with it.

“They kind of suck the contents of the abdomen out … they don’t particularly eat the legs and things.”

I don’t feel at all bad if a bat occasionally meets a grisly end.

[Read more…]

She shot some quick video of our local Monarch butterflies clustering on a tree branch.

Now I ask you: what would you prefer to see, videos of butterflies or videos of spiders? Be honest now.

Honk, honk.

I do spare a glance for other cruel killers too, you know. We’ve got one of these Cooper’s hawks living in my neighborhood, and I heard them making that high-pitched cry a few times already this morning.

If you’re just sitting around, digesting rubbery muffins like I am, may I recommend the Namib Desert cam? Right now there’s a herd of oryx hanging around the waterhole.