These photos are of various spiders I have seen aorund my house and yard. The first one is a female black and yellow argiope who took up next to my front door. it was fascinating to watch her spin her web with the characteristic zigzag of the male being added later. as she expanded with eggs the little OH NO! alien on her back got bigger and bigger! eventually she created the egg sac you see in the last pic. my wife implored me to move the spider away from the door at this point, so I took her into the woods with her egg sac and put her in a hollow stump.

the next two pictures are of spidermoms before and after laying eggs.