Does anyone know anything about spiders? I saw this in my front yard today. It’s quite a beautiful creature, complete with a huge perfect web and everything. It’s not like one of those stringy messes I’m used to seeing at the top of my front door.
Tomorrow on Toastie’s Wide World of Wildlife: Slugs having sex. Seriously. I was going to put that in this post, but I figured I’d milk my nature-photo goldmine for a couple of days.
bullcitydave 
I think that tell-tale zigzag indicates it’s an Orb Weaver.
http://www.rpleepestcontrol.com/PestInfo/Spiders/OrbWeaverSpiders.aspx
Of course, I’m no expert… just guessing.
Slugs in coitus? Really? Eww.
She’s beautiful!!! Staying tuned for slugs…
Just for the hell of it: The zigzag structure in the middle is called a stabilimentum. It was originally thought to help stabilize the web, hence the name. Many people now think the stabilimentum is to alert birds to the web’s presence so as not to fly through it and destroy it. Some companies even sell a window decal that includes a stabilimentum as an aid to keep birds from flying into windows.
Hey — cool! I saw one of those at my parents’ place last year and was also inspired to take some pix. It’s a nice spider for sitting still.
Wow, Joe, you know a lot about spiders!
Hello… where are the slugs? Refresh refresh refresh. :p
I missed my deadline. I’ll try to post the slug porn tonight.
Thanks for all the cool info about spiders. Charlotte is still watching her web as of this morning. Stabilimentum still looks strong.
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