While Hugh and I were walking up the hill with the dogs this evening, I spied a dark thing suspended high in the air in a clearing among some trees, and realized it was a spider, this spider, from the back side. I had to run down the hill and then back up (getting sidetracked by the encounter with 2010 scorpion #4 on the way) to get these photos before the sun went down. This thing is HUGE. It was sitting in the center of its web about 13 or 15 feet above the ground. Hugh thought it was sitting on an egg sac (but I don't think spiders do that, do they?) and then I thought it must be wrapping up some prey, but once I got the telephoto lens, I could see that its giantness was just all spider. It is gorgeous and huge. It is like a small tank.
The trees this web is attached to are about 25 feet apart, I think. Can't wait to have another look tomorrow in the daytime!
The view from almost directly underneath
It looks most like the Orbweaver Araneus bicentarius in my Texas spider book.
Here is its tank-like posture
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