Insectile Introspection...

I went to get some breakfast the other morning. On the way to and from this trip I was listening to some remixed tracks from a project in which I recorded my parent's neighbor's solo acoustic songs. Anywho, I was walking in the front door when something really awesome happened.

I was fumbling with my keys and basically staring into space when I realized that I was staring at a spider with a gnat stuck in it's web. The gnat was struggling, but the spider was significantly larger and seemed to be winning the battle by a large margin. It began to jump wildly about the gnat in a circle, trying to encase it in webbing.

Suddenly, the gnat heaved with tremendous force, causing the web to shake wildly. The spider doubled it's effort to subdue the gnat by trying to spin the gnat with it's legs to more quickly web the insect. The gnat kept kicking, making the web shake even more.

And then, with great effort, the gnat swung loose of the web's grasp. After looping about in what appeared to be disbelief, the gnat look wing and quickly left the scene of his struggle for life. The spider just sat on his web like always, and soon the web's shaking stopped. With the web still and the gnat out of sight, this scenario in which an insectile David defeated Goliath passed into history with only one witness.

I mean, how often does one actually see a complete 180 degree reversal of fortune, especially on a mortal scale? This kind of thing leads my mind down all kinds of avenues of thought, some coherent, some not.

In reality, there is a finite number of times that prey has gotten away from spiders versus times they have not because there has been a finite number of occasions in which this scenario has happened throughout history. I wonder what the ratio is? Whatever it is, it has to be pretty constant. Too great the occurrence of a gnat escape, and the spider population goes down due to starvation, causing an increased and unchecked gnat population. Not enough get away, however, and you have no more gnats period...

Also, are there some insects that have strengths and weaknesses that are different than that of other insects in their species? Are there some gnats that have a greater will to live / physical strength than other gnats? Are there certain spiders that are excellent trappers and outshine most other spiders in the species? As mammals, we see insects as nothing more than cold blooded automatons. What is the true level of insect awareness?

Well, it just goes to show you that we don't know everything there is to know and never will. It also proves that while life is fleeting, it can be made sweeter through struggle.

It also illustrates that we have a spider problem.