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Kleptoparasitism ! -Freeloader Flies
Family: Milichiidae
-37.8572, 145.322
Field Notes
Description:
Tiny flies about 2 mm long with shiny thorax and red eyes, all over a curled leaf shelter of a spider. The shelter appeared to be a single broad gum leaf folded in an "L" shape and bound by silk, except for the lower end which served as an opening through which the spider could exit the shelter. The leaf was suspended in the air by a fantastic delicate webbing of silk strung from plant branches of nearby shrubs.
The spiders legs can be seen protruding from the lower end in Pic 1.
Habitat:
Spotted in a nature reserve.
Notes:
This was an amazing sight with so many apparently ready morsels of food at the spider's doorstep ! but these flies were waiting to steal some of the spiders food, which would have been any number of tiny insects. An example of kleptoparasitism.<br>
When I touched some of the webbing, a fat abdomen spider came out quite fast probably to check if anything was caught in the web. It made a quick retreat so I could not get a shot of it. <br>
The flies stayed clearly away from the spider, resting on the silk-covered shelter. How they don't get tangled in the webbing around the shelter is something I would like to know ! <br>
I am not able to get an ID past the Family : Milichiidae <br>
https://sites.google.com/site/insectsoftasmaniadiptera/suborder-brachyc…
Here's a spotting by folicallychalled showing a similar relationship between spider & fly
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/31155071 <br> 6 eyars later I've, just by chance, been able to get an ID for the spider. Thanks to James Patullo. The spider happens to be Phonognatha graeffei, a leaf curling spider from Family: Araneidae
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