On Mushrooms and Mantis

Mid-summer, and the praying mantis is delicate among the tomato vines, its exoskeleton, shedding as the mantis grows, as green as any young leaf.

  End of summer, and the movements of the mantis have become weighted and ponderous, the exoskeleton toughened and worn, tinged with the colors of autumn, fading to the last brown, inviting autumn leaves to follow suit.

Early autumn rains soften the mushrooms on an old plum tree. The mushrooms resemble edible tree ears (kikurage), but they are not tree ears, and likely not edible, either.  Can anyone identify this mushroom?

Autumn Spider

On November 6, we awoke to puffs of frosty breath. Autumn comes at last, touching the edges of leaves with the palette of flame.
The Jorogumo (Nephila clavata) spends winter as an egg, hatching in mid-spring.  She spins larger and larger webs as she grows over the summer, dining on bees and other flying insects.
Autumn comes, and the Jorogumo spiders are resplendent against  backdrops of forest or sky, reposing in signature 3-D webs. The webs are unique, large orbs with a 3-D lattice backing,  tensile enough to span small rivers.

The females are large and beautifully colored. They each keep a tiny male consort or two, sometimes instinctively devouring them. On the first night of frost, the spiders abandon the webs, secure their precious eggs to the backs of evergreen leaves, and then  pass beyond the veil to the otherworld, to haunt the edges of our prehistoric dreams.