Aculepeira packardi
Female
"A Beacon in the Desert"
It was hard to miss this beautifully-colored orb weaver in the middle of the dry, fox-tail covered desert at
Promontory Point, Utah. She shown like a beacon and I had never seen one like it with this orange coloring.
The spider was not spooked in the least when I started taking photos.
This is just a side view of the spider. I went over to another bush after this to take a picture of a
blister beetle I had seen land and when I turned back to the spider, this is what I saw:
Shehad captured a Cuckoo Wasp and the coloring of that wasp only added to the beauty of the spider. Cuckoo
Wasps were en masse in the area, moving through all the bushes quickly like they
were scanning for food. All photos © Carol Davis, 7-11-2010
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