CRUELTY (3 august 2006)
In case you're soft-hearted or otherwise oversensitive, you'd better read something else. What I'm going to relate is not exactly pleasant neither is it meant for the weak of heart.
Any idea what you see here?
The picture shows part of one of the walls of De Platluus. Into this wall a screw hole has been drilled. There is, however, no screw in this hole, but it houses a spider, which has spun a tangle of threads around his hole.
Patiently, the spider is waiting. From time to time, insects of various sizes get entangled in the threads. Immediately the spider is seen to approach - not to save the poor creature, of course. No, our arachnoid friend starts wrapping up its victim. In the process, it injects a caustic fluid which is reputed to promote decomposition.
You think this cruel? Oh well, if fighters in the Middle East are using civilian dwelling places to launch rockets in order to kill other civilians, I can't find our spider very cruel. Or do you think otherwise?
