when i posted my long response, that the thread was closed ?

I stalked this little gal all spring and summer. She would never spin her web in a manner that let me see her head or top side of her body. Would always spin the web in a low bush. Frustrated the heck out of me. Finally, one day, I go out and she has spun a web from her favorite bush to the house, about 2 feet off the ground. A slithered on my stomach to get this shot. What a difference. Suddenly, the little spider had a personality and a face. Alas, since the last big rain storm, I have not seen her. I am actually bummed about it... I can't believe it, but I am. I am marginally Arachnaphobic, so since I have been taking lots of macros of spiders and learning about them, I find I am far less phobic (mind you, this was not a scream and run phobia, but rather a skin crawls phobia). HOW LONG DO THEY LIVE? If I don't see her again this year, is it possible they survive till next year, or are outdoor spiders dead meat over the winter.

The site we are using for spider taxonomy (forums, taxonomy, spiders) spiders shows mabelae listed as synonymous with venusta.

Thank you for the link to the list. The list I was using did not show the equivalence and (L. mabelae) was not listed, so I (wrongly) assumed it was an incomplete list. Thank you again!

The north american list on the spider taxonomy forum only lists two species of Leucauge, and we tried to track down the range of the second one which seems to be tropical, but were unsuccessful. We were thinking that maybe all the images of Leucauge in BugGuide might actually be venusta but were unable to confirm this. Maybe one of the spider experts will be able to straighten this all out for us.