Drinking spider

The sky was clear of clouds and the temperatures have come down in the night. A dew covers everything in the garden, including a female garden spider, Araneus diadematus, with a large, distended abdomen, nearly ready to lay eggs. She is hiding under her dry leaf retreat on the honeysuckle, and using her rear legs to collect the dropplets of dew on her abdomen. She repeatedly makes a brushing motion and then licks the tip of her leg.

Wasp and teasel water cup

 Wasps make their nests of paper which requires mixing chewed wood with saliva, so they need to drink a lot. These wasps, however, were drinking from a risky source of water. The water-filled cups of teasels, where many insects and other bugs drown, and whose juices increase the teasel seed set. Although the unfortunate prey of the teasel might have just happen to fall in the cups, the lure of available water on a sunny day could also be a reason insects are lured to the cups, and many bees and wasps must fall prey to this carnivorous plant (check the wonderful blog Cabinet of Curiosities for an example). These wasps were lucky, they held on, quenched their thirst and flew away.