another view
This guy is very persistent. Here he is, making his way back into her web. His palps (the short arms near her mouth, used for holding stuff and delivering sperm during mating) are not so obvious here, but clearly of the boxing glove vintage
A different view
And the target of his affection - who was a bit frustrated by his advances into her web
However, she chased him off and immediately went to a firefly that flew into her web
and started wrapping. I have synthesized an mpeg video of the wrapping process. It was over in about a minute.
all sorts of high speed motion
Amazing acrobatics! See how she uses her legs to orient the silk being extruded from her spinneret and wrap the firefly.
as she wraps it with her silk
Nearly finished - you can see silk being extruded from her spinneret
and finished
Here is a tangle of web stuff - debris from something
The following photos are from a different web. This gives a general idea of the scale. The web is perhaps 1/2 meter in diameter - a central horizontal web with a 3D structure around it.
When I approach this web, just the slightest movement will send her into hiding. Her hiding place is not so hidden, though.
and a close view of her hiding place
another view
a bit of acrobatics
Another web - here weaving, probably by Neoscona
A closer view
The tension of the web support strand is enough to bend this leaf
A fly
Closer
The Leucauge was building a web near our kitchen
another view
and some more detail
so graceful
and back to the garden - her web
Here she is having a bit of breakfast.
another view
and another
Sort of from the side
I disturbed her web and off she went. Here is breakfast only
and her hiding place from the left
and from the right
A better view of the left
Then she caught a fly for lunch
but seems too much so she drops it
C. Frank Starmer