Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1918 — Spiders Ride on Back of Flies. [ARTICLE]

Spiders Ride on Back of Flies.

There is an aspect of spider and fly relations which fabulists and naturalists alike have overlooked. A correspondent who has brought the microscope to bear on many houseflies finds that the parasite upon that hateful insect is often an immature spider. Too weak yet to spin its web it makes the fly its winged palfrey, and courses from place to place at the will of its captive; either until Pegasus perishes naturally, or presumably until the rider is able to make a meal of his charger. This, if confirmed, seems to carry us a step further in the study of parasitism and commensalism.—Londor Chronicle.