Assassin bugs live up to their name. The insects expertly stalk and feed upon other small invertebrates, jabbing them with a venomous proboscis. Some species even hunt spiders and use a strange trick to gain the upper hand.
Thread-legged bugs are a subfamily of particularly gangly assassin bugs, and some species spend their lives in a place most insects avoid: spider webs. The bugs silently creep along the spider’s silk, taking care to make their vibrations seem benign before violently dispatching the web’s architect, seizing the spiders with their front legs and injecting them with venom.
While watching two species of Stenolemus assassin bugs hunt spiders, ecologists Anne Wignall and Fernando Soley took note of the bugs’ habit of lightly knocking their antennae on spiders once the bugs were within striking distance.
Thread-legged bugs are a subfamily of particularly gangly assassin bugs, and some species spend their lives in a place most insects avoid: spider webs. The bugs silently creep along the spider’s silk, taking care to make their vibrations seem benign before violently dispatching the web’s architect, seizing the spiders with their front legs and injecting them with venom.
While watching two species of Stenolemus assassin bugs hunt spiders, ecologists Anne Wignall and Fernando Soley took note of the bugs’ habit of lightly knocking their antennae on spiders once the bugs were within striking distance.
