More garden carnage

This is an orb weaver spider wrapping its prey, a Christmas beetle, in a sticky shroud from which it was not going to escape. The spider was working so fast at its task it was difficult to photograph but I got a couple.

I love Christmas beetles, an Australian native which appears in numbers only around Christmas time. They are about 2.5cm long and have an iridescent sheen, usually gold or green. They are clumsy fliers which probably makes them vulnerable to predators. The spider will have a feast.

The first extra shows another view featuring the spider's dorsal surface; the second is a fiddler beetle, native to eastern Australia. I saw it on some eucalypt flowers but I disturbed it and it fell to the ground, then eventually flew away; and the third is a leaf-footed bug which I spotted on Sunday in a gum tree.

Thanks for hosting Carol. Keep the wolf from the door.