Big spider, big web, big catch

The other day I photographed a small, ghostly white spider climbing a single strand of web. This morning I discovered that the strand now anchored a very big orb-type web, its center 10 feet above the ground. At the center was this. To give a sense of the scale, at first I thought that the spider had caught a cicada. This is a very big spider, its body, legs pulled in, the diameter of a quarter.

I went out with a longer lens and while the web is still there, the spider and its prey are gone. Something to keep an eye out for in the coming days, at dusk and dawn.

It is, by the way, a Variable Orbweaver, Neoscona crucifera.