This a Black and Yellow Argiope spider in the process of  laying her eggs. Several
hundred eggs are inside the foot-ball like egg mass. The spider ejects the egg mass
in about five minutes. Then she pushes the egg mass up against the top half of the
egg sac that she had made before. The sticky egg mass sticks to the  top half. Then
the spider begins to weave (lay)  web silk  over the egg mass and the top half. The
spider lays belt-like layers consisting of very many strands of web silk. At this point
the egg sac has a cylindrical shape. As the spider weaves more silk, the shape
gradually changes from the original cylindrical to a tear drop shape.  The silk goes
through several color changes as it is applied. The final color is a brownish stripped
design. The process takes about two hours. This particular spider made her egg
about every nine days, beginning at about 2 A.M. each time. These spiders make
one to three eggs in a season.

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