Orb Weaver with beetle

Description:

I saw this large female orb weaver out on its web in broad day light (pic 1 & 4). This is unusual as they are mostly resting amongst foliage in the day time, building a web and hunting at night. She was there all day but on day 2, I woke up to Pic 1 - a sight that was amazing. The spider had caught and wrapped a large flower chafer (probably a cowboy beetle) in silk. The beetle looked twice her size and was still struggling but only slightly.

Habitat:

Spotted in the garden.
Widespread across eastern coastal Australia.

Notes:

Orb weavers are known to successfully catch large prey while moths and butterflies might escape them- they shed their scales when caught in the web and disentangle themselves from the sticky web. The prey is first quickly wrapped in silk and only when it stops struggling is it given the lethal venom with a bite. It iis reported that when there is enough food around, large preys are often let go. This is to minimise damage that the struggling prey might do to the web.
Family: Araneidae