Ambushed!

I came home the other day and did my normal tour of our vegetable/herb garden (I will feature the garden in a future post) and noticed a Silver-Spotted Skipper looking a bit strange on one of our zinnias. A closer look revealed the food-chain in action! A Jagged-Ambush Bug had ambushed the skipper! Notice how the ambush bug looks like sepals of the zinnia.

From what I understand of the description in my National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects & Spiders, the Jagged-Ambush Bug used her strong forearm muscles to grab the skipper. She then bit the skipper and injected saliva to paralyze the little butterfly to consume him for her meal. I visited the flower patch about 15 minutes after this photo and the skipper's wings were on the ground along with a little bit of fur. WOW! The end of life for the skipper, but the continuing of life for the ambush bug.