A hungry redback spider has been caught defying the odds and devouring a much larger and more deadly Australian brown snake.
Astonishing photos show the baby brown snake tangled in the spider’s web and the spider taking a bite from the lethal reptile.
Jeff Simons said his wife, Judy, first saw the creepy scene about three weeks ago in the shed at their property in Elmore in Victoria.
This baby brown snake was found tangled in a spider’s web in Elmore, Victoria
The Victorian couple that discovered the scene said the spider was feasting on the snake
He said he didn’t believe her when she first told him about it and it wasn’t until the following day he bothered to go have a look.
‘It was still feasting on it the next morning,’ he said.
Mr Simons, who says doesn’t mind snakes but dislikes spiders, said he killed the redback and took the snake out of the web.
‘I haven’t seen anything like that before,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
The brown snake, which is native to Australia, is one of the most venomous snakes in the world.
Brown snake venom contains toxins that cause paralysis or muscle weakness.
It’s unclear what type of spider is in the photo.
This isn’t the first time a spider has taken to a snake, ignoring the obvious difference in size and strength.
A brown snake was photographed in the web of a daddy long-legs spider last month.
A daddy long-legs spider claimed a surprise victory against a brown snake after the lethal reptile got caught in its web last month
Farmer and photographer Patrick Lees found the dead snake strung up on his property at Weethalle, near West Wyalong, north west of Canberra.
He said it was first time he had seen a spider kill a snake as he has never come across anything bigger than a ‘blowfly’ in a daddy long-legs web.
Around the same time, West Australia’s Jennifer Fox and her husband posted footage of a number of snakes thrashing around on the floor of a shed, tangled up and unable to escape from webs weaved by the lethal spiders.
A redback spider was photographed preying on a snake it had trapped in its web in February
Jennifer Fox stumbled upon snakes writhing on the floor of her shed in Dongara – 350 kilometres north of Perth in Western Australia