Corn Spider

We have a beautiful spider living in one of the tomato cages that I have over one of my blueberry bushes. It is called a Corn Spider (Argiope aurantia). She (I am assuming it is the female because the males die after mating) is rather large and bright yellow and black. The day I took pictures, she happen to be wrapping a bee up in a ball.

This is her belly. She spends her time upside down and her belly happen to be facing me while I was weeding around the bush. I eventually moved to weed another area because I was starting to tick her odd and I didn't want her to leave the garden. You can see her moist bee ball that she was playing with. It was rather gross, but interesting to see her do her thing.

This is her backside up close. So pretty, I think anyway. Her web was a bit of a mess, falling down in areas thanks to the wind.

Here she is the next day. Her web has all been fixed and her bee is long gone. This is how I see her every day. All stretched out and upside down.

We have been seeing all sorts of new critters in the garden this year. This spider and frogs are new to my garden. I know we have frogs in the spring time because we have a stream behind the house, but never seen them in the garden before. Lots of bugs to eat there I guess, so I welcome all critters who want to munch on them.