Basilica Orbweaver (with eggs)

Description:

Shaped like an Orchard Orbweaver (Leucauge) but with rich green and orange coloring and intriguing markings.

Habitat:

While others throughout the yard live in fairly loose shrubbery and low trees, this one lives in a downright skimpy little azalea (along with a few other smaller spiders of a different type). ; It's rather complicated web is mostly horizontal, built at a slight angle. The center of it is dome shaped and leaves a relatively large opening right in the middle. ; Above the web, parallel to it, the spider built a rather thick line from which it has hung four distinctive egg sacs. They are strung together like a line of four pearls hanging vertically from the thick line.

Notes:

I found this interesting tidbit at Dave's Garden ( http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/438/... ) "Like many orbweavers this little spider cuts her web down each night. Unlike others, during egg laying time, she cuts her web in such a way that it drifts down over her eggs creating a protective coating. Quite a feat of physics and engineering; another of Mother Nature's miracles"