The Butterfly-Wasp metamorphosis ...

Back in 2010, I spent my summer holiday up in Chiang Mai searching for dragonflies. In March, I visited a waterfall in the Mae Sa area. Early in the morning, the sun was shining, but the dragonflies were absent. I walked up a large boulder and to my amazement a tiny, black snake of around 7-8 inches literally jumped out of the grass (about 6 inches off the ground) and toward me, rapidly followed by an enormous spider. Shocked, I moved back as the snake vanished as quickly as it appeared. Within a few seconds, a large black and metallic blue butterfly slowly dropped down right in front of the spider. I was about to shoo the butterfly away when it pounced on the spider. There was an almighty battle for a few seconds and then I realised it was actually a wasp. And a really nasty one at that. There was clearly only one winner. The wasp dragged the limp spider away. An amazingly exciting, yet rather scary sight indeed. I wish I had caught it on video. Here are the three best photos I got, bearing in mind it was all at a million miles an hour and I was shaking with fear.

Order: Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps etc.)
Family/genus: Unknown
Vernacular name: Unknown
Scientific name: Unknown

Game over. I think that the spider was just moving. Just.

Now limp and totally paralysed. It will probably end up staying alive with a wasp grub slowly eating it from the inside out. Mmmmm, delicious. 

And off they went to wherever they were going. I was quite glad when they left, actually.