String of Pearls (or, Where I Dropped My Lens Cap)

[Trueblue Texan]

3. amazing photo!

I'm not sure which species this is, but I have a similar golden orb weaver on my back patio...she made a beautiful egg sac by the dining room window. She was so worn out afterwards, we were afraid that was the end of her. She didn't leave the sac for at least a day. My hubby caught water roach, threw it on the concrete to stun it, then threw it into her web--took several attempts for it to get properly stuck. She ambled down an arm of the web and did her thing on the roach (eww!). Then she went back to the center of her web in the center of the window. We thought she was done until maybe next year, but no! Last week she made a SECOND egg sac just above the window. This one REALLy took a lot out of her. My hubby found a praying mantis--sucker was HUGE...threw it in her web. It took her more than an hour to disable it, but she seemed to eat her fill. I guess one of the dogs found it on the patio yesterday and brought it in to play with. The spider still looks worn out and didn't gain weight like she did after previously meals my hubby supplied. So maybe she has no more eggs to feed or maybe she really is done. She's been on the patio a good part of the summer and all of the fall. We have had only one day of cold weather so far and it didn't even hit freezing. She may well survive the winter and be able to supply more of her wonderful, pest killing offspring next spring.