This week, we have a special episode about four of our favorite tiny hunters: turret spiders, wormlions, assassin bugs and dragonfly babies. They use stealth, speed and lethal weapons to catch a meal. You’ll see turret spiders launch sneak attacks from the little towers they build in the forest. If you’re a fan of ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Dune,’ you’ll love meeting the wormlion, which ambushes its prey in a sand pit. If you like true crime stories, you’ll be amazed at how the assassin bug and its accomplice conspire to get rid of voracious caterpillars. You’ll also see hungry dragonfly babies hunt with a lightning-fast mouthpart, reminiscent of a scene right out of the film ‘Alien’! Enjoy learning about these four real-life, miniature monsters in this week’s video and newsletter, where we also give you a behind-the-scenes look at how series cinematographer Josh Cassidy got the amazing footage.
Under the bright yellow petals of a tarweed plant, an insect known as the assassin bug pierces a large moth caterpillar with its pointy mouthpart. Watch the assassin bug and three other lethal tiny hunters in our special episode.
🕷️ Turret spiders are nocturnal ambush hunters. They remain hidden inside their turret until they sense the vibrations of their prey’s footsteps. Females may live in the same burrow for as long as 16 years.
🦁 Wormlions are fly larvae. They dig a pit in the sand from where they ambush ants and other unlucky insects. When one falls in, they squeeze it like a boa constrictor and inject it with paralyzing venom.
🪒Assassin bugs keep their sharp mouthpart folded up like a switchblade until they’re ready to strike their prey. Then, they spring it open, stabbing and sucking their victim dry.
🗡️👄Dragonflies have been around for 320 million years, since before the dinosaurs. Sometime many millions of years ago, the different mouthparts that dragonfly babies used to catch and push food into their mouths fused to form their labium, aka killer lip.
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Name That Critter!
This critter has an unbelievable number of legs. When it hunts, it wraps the ropelike tips of its legs around its prey. It also has venom-injecting fangs that are modified legs. What is it? Find the answer at the bottom of this newsletter.
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Josh Cassidy, Deep Look’s lead producer and cinematographer, films turret spiders in Contra Costa County’s Briones Regional Park.
Josh found and filmed turret spiders with the help of a naturalist for the East Bay Regional Park District. Josh explains, “During filming, we were very respectful and careful not to damage their fragile turrets. We used something called a ring light, which goes around the outside of the lens, so I could point both the camera and light down into the turret at the same time. I would get my focus and then turn off the light and wait. After about 10 minutes I could slowly turn up the light without scaring them.”
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House centipede! House centipedes are aggressive predators that use venom to subdue their prey. But they rarely bite people. House centipedes have far fewer than the 100 legs their name suggests. They’re born with a modest eight legs, a count that grows to 30 legs as they reach adulthood.
