Spider vs Amboli Bush Frog

[Bibhav Behera]

We were sitting in the mud floored common area in KRCE near Agumbe after a long day of trekking in the rains. It was still raining and a little after 8 PM. One could hear frog calling from all over the place. But there was one which had an extremely sharp call and was pretty close by. On flashing the torch in it direction, we saw an Amboli Bush Frog calling. On moving closer we could see the legs of a largish spider on the other side of the polythene sheet that was preventing the rains from splashing into the room. We saw it slowly start moving from the other side on seeing the silhouette of the frog. The frog was unaware of its presence. It soon went to the top and moved over to the same side as the bush frog. It waited and made a dash at the frog. Unfortunately for it, the frog was too big for it and it moved away.

It was a crazy experience seeing this natural history moment unfold in front. In the wild, nothing is ever too big when you are a predator

Images shot with 5D Mark III and 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM and 600-EX Speedlite Flash.

Abhishek, will be great if you can help ID the Spider.