This gorgeous spider had built her web in a tree just about my eye-level. It was not a complete web, I think she was in the process of taking it down and eating the silk. She had a retreat web where she had curled over a leaf and spun silk around it: it was impossible to see her when she crawled into it. Orb weavers (family Araneidae) make up a huge family with several hundred species in North America. They vary greatly in shape, size, and color. They have 8 eyes arranged in 2 horizontal rows of 4 eyes each. Their chelicerae (jaws) usually have a small bump, or boss, on the outside margin. Male orb weavers are commonly much smaller than the females; this is amply born out by these pictures.

Female size: 30mm

Retreat web (curled leaf)

Orb webs are spun in a spiral, on support lines that radiate outwards from the center. Many spiders in this family replace the entire web daily, recycking the silk by eating it. This highly complex protein is energy dense, and these spiders have evolved a thrifty recycling strategy. The male orb weavers frequently spin their own smaller orb webs near an outlying portion of the female's web.

Male marbled orb weaver

Male size: 10-15mm