Description
Argyrodes elevatus on the web of the yellow garden spider, Argiope aurantia. Heritage Island, Anacostia River, Washington, DC, USA. 25 August 2012. You can see Argyrodes moving around in the web of its host and in one of the clips it settles down on the prey while Argiope is feeding on the other side. It was a rainy day and not many things were flying between showers, so I thought I'd do a little video of this Argiope sucking on its food. Initially, I didn't even see the little kleptoparasite lurking in the web. When I finally saw it, I knew immediately what it was because I had seen it in a David Attenborough movie. It was great fun to finally see one in real life. From now on, I'll have to stop and closely inspect every one of these webs.

