by Eric Neubauer
Sometimes I get to see interesting behaviors while photographing wolf spiders. Most often this involves catching prey, because the light of my photography rig attracts all kinds of flying things out of the dark. In the blink of an eye, a spider leaps on its prey, usually a moth, and subdues it. Sometimes a spider misses, ends up on its back and then quickly flips itself right side up.
Once I saw a spider remain on its back after the moth escaped, hoping the moth would come back within reach. Behavior like this almost always happens too quickly to photograph.
Tuesday night I was photographing a large adult male Tigrosa which ended up on hold back holding onto his dinner with 4 of his legs. He didn’t immediately flip himself upright. I guess he was taking time to securely grab the moth by its neck with his jaws, so I got a picture! Then he flipped himself over without letting go of the moth and I got a second picture. It pays to have 8 legs.
Nature Along the El Camino Real 