Wasp Spider consumes bees

Tjeerd Blacquière

Not only swallows, bee-eaters and hornets do once and a while pick a few bees. Also this rather new contributor to our national biodiversity, the ‘wasp spider’ shows good taste and takes its share. At our apiary at Lelystad almost any bee hive hosts such a spider, not to mention the many in the huge grass in front of the hives. They consume at the site varroa resistant bees as well as non-selected bees. It appears that the colonies can afford such sacrifice whilst they are doing very well. But maybe the spider only catches the not so brilliant / not so fast / not so healthy foragers, which might even improve the health of the colonies. Just alike the story from Yunnan (China) with the hornets.