How do spiders decide where to place their webs? Is there some special secret that is passed on from generation to generation about optimal web placement for capturing prey? I know that human fisherman and trappers look for specific conditions and wonder if it is the same with spiders.
Whatever the case, this Black and Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia) appears to have mastered her trapping skills and looks to have caught both a female Common Whitetail dragonfly (Plathemis lydia) and what I think is some kind of female grasshopper. I am not really sure about the latter victim, but that is what I believe the green-colored object is in the image.
Often I see the webs of this kind of spider in fairly thick vegetation, but this web was hanging in mid-air about six feet high at the edge of a small pond last weekend at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge. The murky grayness in the upper right portion of the image is the water of the pond. In the left hand side you can see some of the web strands that tenuously connected the web to some nearby vegetation. This spider would not have one any contests for the beauty of its web, but there is no arguing with its success in capturing prey.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
The ones I don’t understand, Mike are the ones that crop up overnight between our bushes and our fence. I get them right in the face. Unless one of those spiders has high hopes of catching me. This guy looks like he/she will be eating good for a while.
I admire many spider webs–the rainbow colors on the strands, the placements, the catches. But this one, Mike, is the bonanza web of all time. Absoluate wizardry in catching! Excellent photo.
Great shot Mike! Looks like the spider will be a well fed.
Following the enlargement of this photo, Benjamin made me laugh when he said : “Whoa, that spider is a real killer!” He looked at me somewhat aghast and said : “Gem, it’s not funny to those bugs he caught!” True enough, the humor depends on whether you are the spinner of the web or the one caught in it! However badly Benjamin feels for those caught in the web, he still opines that : “This is an awesome spider!” Thank-you, Mr. Mike!!
Entree and dessert? Must say I have NEVER seen anything like it!