Nursery Web Spider (Eating Pearl Crescent Butterfly)

Description:

Thanks to Bug Eric for ID on this spider I saw eating this unfortunate butterfly. I do not recall and cannot tell from my picture if there was a web involved in capturing the prey, however Nursery Web Spiders are ambush hunters and that would tend to point to minimal use of a web (if at all). The Pearl Crescent being eaten is not particularly large as far as butterflies go, however the size of the spider in comparison does make it fairly large as far as spiders go!

Habitat:

Found all along the eastern seaboard of the United States and west to Texas, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.[

Notes:

Spotted in a pasture in the mountains of Ellijay, GA.