UFO - Featherlegged Orb-weaver

Description:

This is the dorsal view of a female Featherlegged Orb-weaver spider. I found her under the stairs at my home.She is nothing but a piece of dry leaf from a distance. In fact the colors and patterns on her was not visible to the eye since she was in a very dark corner. I was utterly shocked to see the patterns and textures on her through the camera. :-)Her abdomen had bulged up considerably which I thought was normal for the species until I found her by the egg case this morning. :-DDorsal view and egg case pictures here: This spider belongs to a family of non-venomous spiders. They lack of venom glands and they kill their prey by crushing with over 140 metres of thread!![wiki]Size: 1 cm approx