I was taking laundry down and heard a shout from Ben, on the patio. He’d dropped something on the ground by our door and a giant wasp flew up, circling him. It flew away, but we found this:
Poor thing. This is a large female wolf spider, and it’s very much still alive, but paralyzed. It can very slightly move its legs, but that is all.
The wasp had stung it, and was probably in the process of dragging it to wherever the wasp’s burrow is, to seal inside as food for its larva.
I’m pretty bummed that we disturbed the spectacle and didn’t get to watch it to completion. Once stung, as far as I can find, the spider will never recover. Now two spiders will die to feed this one larva! Yes, I’m sad for a spider. But it also would have been really cool to watch.
The wasp vs spider combat does not always have the spider as loser. On You Tube there’s a video from Louisiana about a black widow spider that ends up encasing a giant cicada killer wasp in webbing. I haven’t heard of Australia having any wasp equal in size. The wasp buzzed fantastically for several minutes. I think its heart suddenly stopped. If this species couldn’t escape the web, I doubt any other species could either, including the Japanese hornet. But those don’t occur where the black widow occurs. The spider would be wiped out, however, if it got within range of the sting.