I watched a murder occur - pholcus phalangioides vs musca domestica

Out of the corner of my eye I saw something fall down underneath a desk. It was a small black ball. And then  a spider pounced from the bottom of the desk, where I guess it had a web, and started rapidly biting (I think?) the ball. I don't really have very much spider vocabulary but it alternated between biting and spinning web out its ... bum? and wrapping the fly up, and climbing back up and jumping down. Over and over. It was fascinating to watch.

I didn't even think to grab my camera until most of the action was over, but you can still get the picture. Watching this happen over maybe a ten minute period I was feeling mighty grateful that spiders are as small as they are, because that shit was horrifying to see go down. Poor fly!!

See it bending down in the last few pictures? It was biting every surface of the fly I think. So creepy. After this I stopped watching for a bit and when I went back to look for them, they were both gone. So I think what the spider had actually been busy doing was a) killing the fly and b) creating some kind of magical transport device like a time machine or a motorized scooter.