A capital spider!

At my mother-in-law's house in London (the capital, geddit?), the garden is presently full of spiders on their webs. I kept my eye on the webs and managed to capture this spider in action. Its web has trapped a hoverfly and the spider had administered its anaesthetic bite to pacify it, before wrapping it (mummifying it!) in silk. The spider is a common garden spider (also called the cross spider or diadem spider), Latin name Araneus diadematus. It is a stunning looking creature. Apologies to the arachnaphobes out there.