Nursery Web Spider with Egg Sac

I recently found this Nursery Web Spider (Pisaura mirabilis) and noticed it was carrying its egg sac in its jaws. I've found Nursery Web Spiders doing this in the past but the difference on this occasion was that she allowed me to get quite close to photograph her.

Female Nursery Web Spiders carry their egg sacs around like this until the eggs are about to hatch at which point they will build a protective 'nursery web' for them to hatch into. They will then protect the nursery from predators.

All images were taken with a Canon 60mm macro. My lens of choice would have been my Sigma 150mm macro but it was being repaired at the time.

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