My eight bulbous eyes snapped open! Vibrations ricocheted off the thin strands of glistening white string that made up my web, startling me awake. Something was caught in my trap. I was instantly up and ready to hunt. I had felt this disturbance before and knew this was a fly. I needed to get there fast and secure my prey in case it escaped, and I was left ravenous. Usually, my sticky silk would catch anything. However, sometimes they would just manage to wriggle free before I got there.

Nimbly, I scuttled down my dew-covered web, careful not to fall the long deadly drop to the ground. Up here, this was my territory; I felt at home, but a spider on the ground is in real trouble. Exposed and open to predators, all your advantages are gone in an instant.

My jet-black abdomen glinted in the morning sun, and my gangly legs scurried me to my meal. The fly was writhing and thrashing, desperate to escape, but it was no use. The more it moved, the more ensnared it became until any hope I had left vanished. Quickly, I reared up onto my hind legs to strike. Then lunging forward, I pierced the fly’s body with my sharp, venom-filled fangs. Huge eyes full of panic and confusion stared up at me as the life drained out of them. My spinnerets swiftly started encapsulating my prize in a cage of silken thread.

Suddenly, an ominous shadow loomed above me, slowly advancing towards my web. Fear tore through me like a bullet. Forgetting the fly, I frantically scrambled back to the safety of the shadows, but it was no use. Straining, my web collapsed under the immense force bearing down on it. Was it a crow or a robin? No, this was much worse.