The largest of the female Golden Silk Orbweavers (Nephila clavipes) made her last molt to maturity and the smaller male has made his move.

I've always wanted to capture spiders mating, and I got lucky when I came home from work today!

In the upper left of the frame, you can see the shed exoskeleton from her last molt. She isn't fully grown yet and her abdomen is a bit small, probably since she's just molted. She'll get bigger though, especially when she's fully gravid.

The male is not likely to be eaten as sexual cannibalism is rare in this species. She did knock him with a leg a couple times during some of his advances, but he was able to get her in the mood.

Light was not on my side for these shots, but I think these came out well.