All I have to say about the title of this post is…Roget let me down yet again.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the past couple of months I’ve been observing a female yellow garden spider<\/a> (Argiope aurantia<\/i>; a type of orb weaver) just outside one of our garage windows. During that time, it’s grown from a half-inch “wingspan” juvenile into a three inch Stuff Of Nightmares, dining on a variety of hapless insects that become ensnared in its two feet wide circular web, which is anchored at the corners by some tall shrubs on the bottom, and the eave of our house at the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I check on it daily, mainly to reassure myself that if it’s still there, it’s not in our house. Did I mention my arachnid aversion? I confess a somewhat morbid fascination with its behavior, as I comfortably (in a physical sense; emotionally, it’s a different story) view it from the opposite side of the glass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But last week, I saw something that made me drop my guard and rush outside to get a closer look. The spider was busily spinning something around with those Tim Burtonesque legs, and I immediately recognized it as Lady Shelob<\/a>‘s next Meal Simple<\/a>. The apparently imminent entr\u00e9e was vaguely beetle-shaped, and as I looked closer, I realized to my horror that it was still alive and [literally] kicking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, of course, I had to video it…and you’ll never believe what happened next! (No, really!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n