Carrhotus viduus - "Fighting"

I was working on my office laptop one afternoon when I heard my 7 year old niece Varna calling for me from the terrace. I knew she had found some bug or spider from her enthusiasm.

I decided to investigate what she had found and went to the terrace when she exclaimed "Chikkappaaaa CAMERA thagondbanni illi ondu jeda ide!!" (uncle bring your camera! there is a spider here!!)

My ever curious and attentive niece never fails to show me every individual spider and bug she encounters. So before I attached my macro diffuser to my flash... fixed my flash, diffuser, raynox to my camera... I wanted to know what she had found this time. If it was a common creature I would have had to make up some excuse not to photograph it again. So I was like "noduva yaava jeda antha". And to my surprise this is what she showed me!

A pair of Carrhotus viduus mating on a Ficus leaf, among the galls, 4 feet away and below the terrace level. I was surprised she could identify it as a spider from that distance given the pair were all bunched up.

I quickly got my camera, carefully pulled the branch closer with one hand and started photographing them when the intrusion caused them to separate and look at each each with utter disbelief. This is when my niece exclaimed "eradu jeda ide chikkappa!! enu maadtha ide?!" (there are 2 spiders uncle! what are they doing?!)

I now had to think fast and I did -

I calmly told her they were fighting. (they were actually mating)
She asked why...
I said they were fighting for the ownership of the tree. Whoever wins gets to eat all the insects on that tree.

So she exclaimed - "Noduva yaaru gelthaare antha!" (let's see who wins!)

As if this was the cue they were waiting for, the "Black and white" spider started "fighting" with the "brown and yellow" spider very enthusiastically :-D