Daddy longlegs may be capturing and devouring frogs in the tropical forests of South America

A close up image of a black spider with long spindly legs devouring a small brown frog sitting on a large green leaf.

Daddy longlegs have been spotted devouring live frogs bigger than themselves in the tropical forests of South America, a new study reports. And this behavior might be more common than scientists expected.

"Finding these animals eating [live] frogs was a complete surprise, we didn't expect them to be able to capture them," study co-author Luís Fernando García, a biologist at the University of the Republic in Uruguay, told Live Science.