Spider Update

Margaret, the Golden Orb Weaver (Nephila)  who was living in my roses when last I posted, has gone CRAZY.  She's moved to the archway on my front porch (though not over the doorway, thankfully), and has more than quadrupled in size in the last several weeks.  She's now got a legspan of about five inches, and her abdomen is like the size of my thumb!  She's eating a junebug a night or more, and the other day I saw a tiny male in her web, so there may be an egg sac soon!  Yay spiders!

This is a terrible picture, but, here you go:

(that's a 3" cup hook about a foot away for scale)

She's made her web in a place where photgraphing here is nearly impossible.  During the day, she's backlit by the sun, and at night, well, you can see.  But she's really brightly colored, and her web is nearly four feet across - it takes up the ENTIRE first archway on the porch! 

This one, with the plant and the bell. I took both down one
night so that a massive thunderstorm blowing in from the north
wouldn't put that iron bell through my front porch window, and
the next morning: SPIDER. 

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