The spider at the end of the line

A crab spider may hide itself by matching the color of its flower or by constructing a refuge among the petals, but how can an orb-weaver hide on its web?  In an empty web, an orb-weaver is an easy target for its own predators and parasites.  Many orb-weavers avoid this problem by spending the day hidden nearby their webs, but not Allocyclosa bifurca.

Which lump is the spider?

These spiders sit in wait right in the middle of their webs, where they are disguised as part of a line of similarly shaped and colored egg sacs (above the spider) and bundled prey (below the spider). 

A female Allocyclosa bifurca eating prey that had become snared in its web.

Each time I find these spiders, they seem to be doing very well -- with several egg sacs per web and sometimes several spiders on neighboring fronds of the same palm. 

A female Allocyclosa bifurca spider briefly moving out of its hiding spot.

Yet, as successful as A. bifurca's camouflaging may be, it pales in comparison to what related Cyclosa spiders can do.