A fly eating a spider ...could this be true?

[banana]

The other night I was coming inside and on the step was a bee/wasp/fly . It was trapping a spider and proceded to eat it .THe insect was black and yellow and had reddish wings .

[incitatus]

The thing you may be thinnking of is the pepsis, or tarantula hawk wasp, which feeds them to its young

[banana]

Dont think so incitatus . This was in Derbyshire and the pepsis, or tarantula hawk wasp seems to be native to USA. The insect I saw was quite small - about the size of a 'normal' wasp .The spider too was small -its body about the same size as a peppercorn if thats any help.

[Cetti]

Think I may have found something banana. There is a whole family called Solitary Wasps (or might be the genus) that live in the UK. Among them is a group called Pompilide - and they eat spiders! It seems they could be quite rare so your doorstep might be needed for scientific research. ;-)

http://www.earthlife.net/insects/solwasps.html

[Rabelais]

The common wasp Vespula vulgaris are omnivores, during the early breeding cycle when raising grubs the predate on insects which they pulp and feed to the larvae. The larvae then excrete a sugary solution on which the adults feed. During the autumn when the breeding cycle has finished they aggressively seek sugar sources like fallen fruit and most of the confectionaries in our local bakers window. I new this but never really thought about it until I saw a wasp catch a daddy longlegs cut its wings and legs off and then flew off with the body.

[banana]

Wow Thanks Cetti and rabelais .Ive managed to live this far without ever finding out that wasps eat meat . Why didnt I know that already?

[ES_Sandyman]

There are a wide variety of spider-eating wasps as well as flies known as robber flies, which are predators. Most spider wasps won't actually eat the spider in front of you - they carry it off to feed it to their kids. Banana - the basic difference between wasps & bees is that Wasps = predators and Bees = herbivores. Now you know.