[STORYTIME!] Another Spider Leaves A Spring Present

1 picture above in a note :)

This pretty lady arrived on our porch back in mid-October and I saw that she was a Cat-Faced Orb-Weaver like Roscoe, except darker in coloring. She was also quite a bit smaller, so I wasn't sure what her life expectancy was. Would she live until spring, grow larger and then make an egg sac? I didn't know, but I certainly enjoyed her company. Unlike Roscoe, she didn't stay in one spot and tried out several locations before settling on a place just above our doorway, tucked up against the ceiling. One of her spots was especially cool because she was able to make a very large orb-web in one corner of the porch, and she caught a huge number of wasps and flies there. I'm not sure why she moved from that spot, but maybe there was too much air current.

A couple of weeks ago I saw her dabbing silk on one spot and I thought to myself, "I think she's making an egg sac!" That night I took another peek and found her proudly displaying her great masterpiece for all to see! The size of her egg sac is about half the size of Roscoe's, which makes sense, since this spider was much smaller. The picture you see above was taken when I saw her egg sac for the first time! :)

A week passed, and then a few more days, and she never moved far enough away that she couldn't have one of her feet touching her egg sac. However, last night I looked up to see how she was doing, and discovered that she had left. I looked around to see if I could find her, but she'd already made her last journey to a dark corner to have her final rest. Even though I didn't know this spider very long, I enjoyed her company and loved her pretty coloring. However, just like Roscoe, this spider left me a great treasure to watch over until springtime, and if I'm lucky, I'll be able to share pictures of the babies hatching...and maybe one of them will choose to stay! :) (By the way, I've put her other picture as an inset for you to see! :)