Spider Sunday, Puerto Rico edition

We had an amazing time recharging our science batteries and exploring the island of Puerto Rico for a few days this August:

We spent much of the vacation out and about in Nature, meeting new (to us) birds and frogs and lizards, and some really cool plants.

via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mimosa_Pudica.gif

One surprising find was seeing our old friend, the golden orb weaver. We even saw one outside the Cueva Ventana that had succumb to a fungal infection of some sort:

Dead Golden orb-weaver. Check out the fungus growing out of the leg joints.

I showed this image to a mycologist friend and they thought the fungus may be from the genus Beauveria. In all of my years living in orb-weaver infested Gainesville FL, I have never seen a dead banana spider!  Had to share!