Backyard Orchard News The lady beetle, aka ladybug, was at the
wrong place at the wrong time. We don't know how she managed to
get tangled in the cellar spider's web or why the cellar spider
opted to have her for dinner instead waiting for a tasty honey
bee, a nutritious leafcutter bee or a plump bumble bee.
Nevertheless, we came upon this predator-prey attack in our
backyard. It was too late to save the ladybug. Ordinarily, the
ladybug's bright red coloration serves as a "warning" to
predators. Plus, ladybugs are known to ooze a foul-tasting
chemical that tastes so bad that predators leave them alone.
"The bright colors of many coccinellids discourage some
potential predators from making a meal of them," according to
Wikipedia. "This phenomenon is called aposematism and works
because predators learn by experience to associate certain prey
phenotypes with a bad taste. A further defense known as 'Reflex
bleeding' exists in which an alkaloid toxin is exuded through
the joints of the exoskeleton, triggered by me